Good post Julia.
If Ava's posts are to believed, she's now having to pay £500 per commute. Assuming 2 commutes per month, that would make her £12K taxed income pa worse off than if she had accepted the BA deal. Perhaps equivalent to say 15K off her gross salary before tax. (I've no idea what the SA tax rate is)
I wonder what she would have said a year ago if BASSA had explained to her she had a choice of either a £15K pay cut or to agree that the CSD's should push a trolley?