Originally Posted by Ex Cargp Clown
CM, I know quite a few former colleagues how have been "red-ringed" as CC. Would you expect them to take a pay cut ? I also know quite a few off the FD, and I wouldn't expect them to take a paycut either.
I don't want to take a pay cut either, but I've had plenty of time to look at the worldwide economic situation, the BA business model and the trends we're showing month on month. If you'd ask me to make sacrifices 12 months ago I'd have told you where to shove it. Unfortunately we are now in an entirely different place. I have the good fortune to have plenty of friends who have nothing to do with aviation at all. They all fear for their jobs, and they are all the kind of people who would have flown BA on business or leisure. Make no mistake, they won't now. Business travel is cancelled, leisure travel is back to the minimum and now purely dictated by price. Personally I'd rather knuckle down, keep the company afloat and claw back the rewards later than try to cling to the status quo and end up like Swissair or Sabena.
The entire airline is in a complete financial mess, and trying to alienate a large sector of your staff seems to be quite idiotic.
Unfortunately, due to their union, that large sector of staff in question have been resistant to any sort of reform for a long time. The rest of the airline has leaned up and become fit for purpose. The remainder are not only inefficent but actively seek to disrupt the operation at times. That sort of disruptive behaviour is an anachronism today.
Many years ago BA was well-known for it's excellence in all areas, mostly because they paid the most, and hence got the best staff. I do not see the logic in changing that, erm logic. Yes times are hard, but why cost cut when it means a lowering of standards ????
Perhaps the operative phrase there is 'many years ago'? We certainly paid the most in certain departments, over the odds in fact, but what we got in the end was a mixed bag of those who love the job and those who hate it but can't get the same money doing anything else. Variability remains one of the biggest bugbears in the feedback from passenger surveys. There are plenty of ways to cut costs without lowering standards. Do crew really need two nights in Prestwick after a diversion before flying home on an empty aircraft? Do we really need to pay crew members £200 each to work one down ex-LHR with a closed cabin? Do we really need to pay £50K to a CSD to sit in an office with no service role? Do we really need in a Purser in each cabin when an experienced crew member can perfom the job just as well? Do cabin crew really need a £50 payment to reduce their LHR turnaround to below 2 hours? Do they really need 18 hours off after a short haul duty of 12:30 hours? BA could save a fortune if cabin crew adopted more efficient working practices, and nobody need lose income, they'd just not backfill the jobs they'd eliminated. Of course this sort of intelligent reform wouldn't take place because BASSA won't stand for it.