Pension Holidays
This is just to clarify a misconception that's arisen here over the above subject.
BA, and many other, pension schemes did take contribution holidays in the mid-1990s. This covered both employer and employee contributions. As pointed out earlier, the schemes were in significant surplus at the time. The key point to note is that the Revenue does not allow schemes to be run with large surpluses as they offer scope for tax avoidance, ie effectively sheltering corporate profit and/or employee earnings from immediate taxation. So, if there are large surpluses, holidays are taken. I think you'll find benefits were also improved in order to draw down the surplus more quickly. With hindsight, that wasn't a brilliant move, as these are now making pension deficits worse. However, the pensions issue raised here is really a Revenue/tax issue, not a BA ploy that reduced employee benefits in any way.