I would like to express support for the Engineers, they are safety critical, professional staff who need their working practices to be on the safe side of the fatigue scale.
Anyone who ever reads a CHIRP report can see that engineering departments are constantly chipping away at their employees trying to increase their productivity.
Airlines need Pilots, Cabin Crew & Engineers to enable them to get the aircraft airbourne. What they do not need is endless middle managers trying to feather their own nests by vainly trying to screw those under them into working themselves silly.
The Engineers, like the Pilots are not the problem in BA. Their own management however, is part of the problem.
The airline world is a victim of modern living to some extent. Leglislature ensures that large companies have H&S departments, employment lawyers etc. who contrubute little to the bottom line other than prevent the company being sued every five minutes. I can think of at least one low cost carrier operating in the UK (but with an AOC based elsewhere, I think) that appears to care less about such issues and therefore finds it easier to improve their bottom line. I bet they doen't have feng shui consultants and rivers running through the supermarket in their head office either.