The Talented Mr. Francis? Sep 20th, 2009 by admin
This whole article sums up the sad state of BASSA, their total incomprehension of what the management function does for a company and what the individual managers remits are. It is also shows the reasoning as to why BASSA have singularly failed to represent their members.
Instead of understanding that the role of the manager is to run the operation they are in charge of to budget or under, delivering savings and cost targets on time with the lowest overheads possible to the board and the shareholders, BASSA believes that the managers should be there in a harmonic duet to make the lives of the staff easier.
It has never been so in business. Never ever. No company would make money if the collective were allowed to dictate working conditions, triggers and staffing levels. Hence the role of management is to achieve these aims. They are NOT there to molly coddle staff. The senior mangers are briefed by junior managers who themselves interface with the staff. The senior managers have a responsibility not to the staff but to the board and the shareholders. That is not to say that protecting your workforce should not be a primary business aim, it should be but when drastic action is required these people are paid to take it.
Cabin crew simply want to come to work and be allowed to get on with doing the job that they enjoy doing. They don’t require armies of managers to make this happen. Left alone, most crew will simply get on with doing what they do best; providing the top quality service that our passengers expect to receive from British Airways.
Quite true for most crew, unfortunately the sickness figures over the years have shown that CC are the most likely to 'drop a sickie' when a day off is needed. No accusations here, most don't but that minority led to the 'sickness' policy which BASSA then had a hissy fit about.
The vast majority of managers for the CC are there to sort out the tortuous agreements, time off, disruption allowances/agreements and sickness procedures that BASSA hold so proud. If we all turned up correctly and did our jobs to the letter of the roster then there would need to be far fewer airport standbys as they would only be needed to cover the predicted delay disruption.
It may shock you to learn that British Airways entire management team that worked on the current round of proposed changes, have barely ever set foot upon a British Airways aircraft, let alone bothered to understand the role of crew. They don’t understand your job and they don’t want to. They simply believe that you have had it too good for too long - and the reason for that? Your union and your agreements; hence you will no longer see the words “Agreement” or “Negotiate” in their communications, only “principles” and “consultation”. Don’t believe us? Then take a look back at every word they have written since February this year and you will find the proof you need.
Abject semantics. Why should the 'senior' management board an aircraft and 'see what you do'? They have an army of junior management that brief them on every aspect of CC work. Failure of middle management to brief adequately senior management led to the two heads rolling over the T5 debacle. It has always been so. As to 'Negotiation', 'Agreement', 'Consultation' and 'Principles', pretty words that fit whatever context the user wishes to use them in.
Instead, as the green shoots of recovery are beginning to be noted in many areas of the economy, it is increasingly being seen as more an opportunistic determination to end union involvement, and with it, reasonable terms and conditions for the people who work hard for this airline, than mere cost cutting.
All other departments have reached agreement on cost cutting measures designed to allow the company as a whole achieve a leading role during the recovery. The share price rise is running on the back of those agreements. Why does BASSA have the arrogance to believe that they should be exempt from such cost cutting when they have one of the biggest departments running well over market rates still utilising crewing levels from the 1980's. Oddly enough many other departments agreements have trigger actions only allowing the cuts to be put in place when ALL cost savings have been agreed. Hence the company will want to achieve all its projected savings to appease the investors and reduce corporate debt.
Aviation is lagging the recession by at least 18-24 months and the UK economy is forecast to lag growth in Europe by at least 12 months. Future rosy? Not for a long time to come.
BASSA had its chance to negotiate with BA before the 30th deadline. BA has ticked all its legal requirement boxes for it to impose contract change if it wishes. BASSA have, once again, squandered to right to make meaningful negotiation and is now embarking on a weak smear campaign.
Now, over to the BASSA experts to defend their unions rhetoric.