Now BA cannot make it more clear how serious they are about the permanent loss of Staff Travel and also hint at you being "locked out" on no pay until they can reasonably re-roster you.
Dear Colleague
This has been another difficult day for British Airways and our customers.
I am personally very saddened that a year after we started talking with
Unite it has once again chosen to disrupt our customers’ family holidays
and business trips.
It is heartening to see many of you don’t support a strike and lots of you
have let us know that you will come to work - thank you.
If you haven’t done so already, you can register your intention to work via
ESS applications, My Opportunities, Backing BA and this is completely
confidential. It will help us to protect your current roster if you do
this within the next 48 hours.
With your help and the support of thousands of colleagues from across the
airline, we will keep our great airline flying.
We will help and support you to come to work
I do understand that coming to work during a strike may be daunting and
there are lots of ways we will help and support you.
Travel expenses: We will pay reasonable travel expenses (with receipts) if
you want to come to work by taxi or public transport
Car parking expenses: We will pay reasonable parking expenses (with
receipts) so you can park in any car park at Heathrow or use the NCP car
park at Gatwick
Patrolling car parks: We will have managers and extra security patrols at
alternative designated car parks and existing crew car parks and we will
protect your anonymity on crew
buses
Extra changing areas: There will be extra changing areas in the crew report
centres so you do not need to travel to or from work in uniform. We will
not insist that your suitcase
meets uniform standards.
Controlled access: There will be more managers in the crew report centres
and only rostered crew will be able to enter on strike days. Crew on
arriving flights will not be able
to come back into the centres.
One flying team: We have arranged for you to report with your captain and
first officers and to stay with them for the whole trip
Alternative hotels: We have arranged some alternative downroute hotels and
will have managers there to help you.
You can find out more about all of these options on the IFCE intranet site
from Saturday (March 13).
Respectful behaviour to all colleagues
Whatever your personal views, please be respectful of your colleagues.
Emotions are running high, but we must respect all our colleagues and
behave in a dignified manner.
If you feel in any way bullied, threatened, intimidated or harassed, we are
here to support you and take action. Please talk to your crew team manager
or call any of the help-lines that are available to you. The details will
be on the IFCE intranet site from Saturday (March 13).
How the decision to strike will affect you personally
For those of you who decide to strike, or call in sick, it is important
that you are aware of how your decision will personally impact on you.
Regrettably history has taught us that absence rises significantly during
industrial action and colleagues choose to call in sick to avoid having to
decide whether to support a strike or come to work. This is not
acceptable.
By not coming to work, either because you support a strike or you call in
sick, you are contributing to the massive financial damage a strike would
cause and we will expect you to help us recover the money we will lose and
this means:
You will lose pay. You will not be paid from the point you do not report
for duty up to the point we can reasonably allocate you another duty. The
withdrawal of pay will include MBT or days off at the end of the duty that
you do not report for.
You will lose staff travel. If you miss any duty on your roster during the
strike, you will be banned from using staff travel permanently. This ban
covers you and all your nominees and you will not be eligible to be a
nominee on other colleagues’ staff travel. Staff travel is a
non-contractual benefit that the company is legally entitled to withdraw
from you.
You will not be paid for absence from work. If you call in sick or are
absent we will assume you are taking industrial action. In every case, you
will have the opportunity to meet with a crew team manager once you return
to duty to talk with them about the reasons for your absence. We will not
authorise any leave unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as a
family bereavement.
Broader consequences – how the strike could affect everyone in IFCE
I have been working hard to make the savings we need and to protect you,
our current crew. That is what the plan I implemented last year achieved
but your union has now put that at risk. Clearly the more of you that come
to work and the more flights we can operate, the less money we will need to
recoup in cost savings.
This is very important – please read
If you do not want to go on strike, you must report if you have any sort of
rostered duty in the air and on the ground.
This is very important. Even if the flight you are due to operate has been
cancelled, you must still report for your duty.
If you do not come to work for any reason we will assume you are taking
part in strike action and you will lose pay and your staff travel.
Thank you for coming to work
Even with the fantastic support from many of you, a strike will test the
loyalty of our customers and cost us millions of pounds that we will need
to get back from more cost savings.
It is not too late and we will not turn our back on the negotiations
because ultimately an answer must be found.
Your crew team manager will be telephoning you in the coming days and I
would encourage you to speak with them about concerns you may have and how
we can support you. You can also telephone our crew helpline on 0800 389
0381 to speak to someone in confidence and we will be extending the opening
hours from Monday to 0800 to 1900 seven days a week.
Please help us to help our customers by coming to work and joining the
thousands of colleagues who have come forward to Back BA.
Bill
Head of Inflight Customer Experience
Now, don't say you weren't warned. And for those commuters on the BASSA forum who say "there are too many of us, he can't take staff travel away permanently"......he CAN. It is NOT BA's problem how you get to work. It is, quite simply, your responsibility to get there and BA have no obligation whatsoever to subsidise your commute. You will lose ST permanently and if you can't get to work / it's too expensive to commute, then you'll simply have to leave your job.
Also, to dispel another myth from the BASSA Forum (Mods, this IS important as some crew really don't understand what's happening)
DO WE KNOW HOW WE GET PAID BY THE UNION WHEN WE'RE ON STRIKE? do we have to sign in before we go on the picket line ? We'll be on more money than the volunteers !! £2.40 an hour for the time they are in the air
Er, no! If you strike, you'll lose your basic pay AND allowances - to be replaced by £30 per day from Unite. The volunteers will receive Basic pay AND £2.40 an hour! You will categorically NOT be "on more money then the volunteers".
