sacked for IA
For those of you who are saying you can be sacked for taking legal strike action , well you can be sacked however it is automatically deemed unfair dismissal in law and the relevant compensation paid , not a huge a amount but better than the nothing some would have us believe.
BA and in fact no large company with in the united kingdom has or even threatened to sack any workers who have taken legal industrial action since the law was changed in 1999. There have been a number of high profile strikes over the years.
BA didn't sack the ground staff who took unofficial action a few years ago, bar two or three who were deemed to have bullied and harassed other staff members and were dismissed on those grounds.
The statements on here that anyone who strikes will be sacked is pure supposition and very very unlikely as such a high profile company hates to find it's self in court for any reason. even staff who steal from the company are never ever prosecuted even when it involves £1000's.
BA didn't sack any of the cabin crew back in 1997 when the employment law was on the side of the company and would have been perfectly legal to do so, while the management has changed some what since then and they have a track record of sacking pilots at their previous airline for taking strike action ,remember that airline is governed by Irish law which differs from UK employment law.
I'm passionate about BA but I'm also passionate about the collective agreements crew have. I believe it is immoral to decided to change or disregard these agreements just because you don't like them and a predecessor agreed to them and now don't fit the agenda.
I will stand up for what I and many others believe in. I believe this imposition breaks my contract with BA. It says in my contract of employment the following -
" from time to time BA have collective agreements with the trade unions and these form part of your contract of employment"
The crewing levels on the long haul aircraft are written into the collective worldwide agreements signed by both the Tu's and BA ( ranks on board do not) and therefor form part of my contract of employment.
All the scaremongering on here will not sway me, I believe in what I'm fighting for, if on the outside chance BA go bust or decide to dismiss the striking workforce, which I doubt will happen, so be it but I will not be scared into accepting imposition now or in the future.
I believe in a negotiated change to my terms and conditions and this would involve meaningful talks not lip service to say we tried. The new crewing levels and service routines didn't get written over night, these have been worked on for months and months and I believe this was BA's agenda for the last 2 years or so, BA never had the intention to find a negotiated settlement or way forward unless it was solely on their terms, disregarding any collective agreements that may stand in the way.
I fully expect words about being delusional etc, the Tolpuddle Martyrs may well have been deemed to be delusional at the time but they laid the foundations for workers rights through TU's and the employment laws we ALL enjoy today, they were a long time coming but they had to start some where.
Last edited by flyeruk69; 21st Nov 2009 at 17:22.