Winch_Control.
You seem to be short of a few facts.There are three different fleets that make up BA cabin crew .Long haul from Heathrow,Euro Fleet from Heathrow and SFL from Gatwick.For a number of years now new cabin crew have been recruited on a basic gross salary of around £10950 pa and they have only had the option to work on the last two fleets,which are therefore generally made up of the younger generation who are prepared to accept contracts that are pretty similar to those which you would find elsewhere in the market.A lot of the crew ,especially at LGW earn (after allowances) less than crew at Easy Jet and other like carriers.
The crew at LHR who are reported to earn double market rate(which I do not deny) have been with the company in general many years,and have made their careers with BA because the company policy has encouraged this.If you have been working for the same employer for 15 years you would expect to be earning a decent salary.Take an example of a newly qualfied secretary in london.She may start on a salary of £12000 pa ,however if she was competant,and the company wanted to keep her,she would expect to earn considerably more after 15 years .
You can't expect BA to get rid of all these costly crew and re-employ new crew on £11000,(only chance of that is if BA became bankrupt)otherwise leagally its impossible.BA for some years now have been recruiting at market rate.
What is shocking is the allowance system that suppliments the basic wage.At LHR long haul and I believe to a lesser extent at euro fleet a mirriade of different allowances exist that have been negotiated over the years by BASSA which would appear completley non-sensical in any business,however they make up a major part of the salaries that these crew have been enjoying for years .Enough said.
Anyway it looks like BASSA are heading on another non-sensical blinkered horse ride,and I for one am a little worried about the final outcome.