PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - BA Strike - Your Thoughts & Questions V
View Single Post
Old 27th Apr 2011, 08:52
  #680 (permalink)  
vctenderness
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 889
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by VintageKrug
I recall BASSAwitch gave an update last week that he/she was still making enquiries with the Certification Officer to gain access to the BASSA accounts, which are legally required to be made available to current and past members of any Union.

Current or former BASSA members who are interested in knowing what happens to the £1.5m+ annual subs paid to Duncan Holley by the 9,000 or so (and falling) BASSA membership needn't wait for BASSAwitch to get a response, they can ask the Certification Officer directly to look further into the matter, via email:

Certification Officer - Complaints

In my view, the matter should also be directly pursued with BASSA and UNite's auditors as a matter of questionable professional conduct, as this is likely to bear more fruit, faster.

This was the last response from BASSA, back in March:



There has been considerable focus on what BASSA "pays" its reps.

Setting aside whether you think they should be paid or not (and personally I don't think its unreasonable to be paid something if you are delivering a valuable service to members) DH has stated he receives an "honorarium" of £25,000 per annum, which is 50% of his entitlement. Good for him.

However, this does mean he has deniability when asked what he is "paid" or what "salary" BASSA compensates him with, as an honorarium is not the same as pay/salary.

There are many other ways of "rewarding" people, as MPs have proven, from employing relatives for administrative tasks, expenses claims, travel and entertainment allowance (Bedfont, anyone?), company cars (eg a BMW M3), additional payments for other duties performed, pension contributions (an area of specific focus in this situation, given typical union remuneration structures), medical insurance and any payments in connection with his recent dismissal for gross misconduct.

All of which should be looked into, though are not legally required to be disclosed as part of a request for the accounts.

It will be interesting to learn of The Unhinged One has anything to say on this matter.
the BASSA reps claim a daily payment for attending meetings or doing anything connected to the union.

This is in excess of £100 per day and I think that the senior reps get £125 but cannot be 100% sure now.

Also lap tops, mobile phones, phone calls, are claimed.

There is no system of control and it may be that a rep pops into the office for 30 minutes has a chat and then claims a days allowance.

The taxation of this is not clear the Revenue have persued the BASSA reps in the past for full tax and Im pretty sure that an outstanding bill was paid from the BASSA funds.

DH should not be entitled to any of this but I would bet that he claims the maximum daily attendance every month plus his commission. When he was employed by BA he was earning as much as a senior BA Captain if all was taken into account - not bad from someone who hardly ever put his cabin crew uniform on

Last edited by vctenderness; 27th Apr 2011 at 08:54. Reason: typo
vctenderness is offline