BASSA confront Willie Walsh, or is it vice versa?

[rubik101]

Some way down the front page of the Times website, this little snippet cropped up.

British Airways showdown looms as Willie Walsh seeks to cut staff pay.

British Airways has proposed a shake-up of employee pay and conditions in a move that could lead to substantial cuts in remuneration and holidays for its 13,500 cabin crew.

The proposals are believed to be at the forefront of a cost-cutting drive under which BA wants to reduce its in-flight budget of £567.9 million by £82 million. Cabin crew are regarded internally at BA as having the best compensation package.

How long before he turns his attention to the pilots?

[deltayankee]

Cabin crew are regarded internally at BA as having the best compensation package.



Best out of all the employees at BA (meaning Willie himself treats himself worse) or BA CC have the best package of all CC in the industry? Tad ambiguous but ominous.

[Magplug]

Unfortunately this confrontation is sure to end in tears. The cabin crew at LHR, both SH and LH, are paid so far above market rate that they stand to lose out bigtime if brought down to industry benchmark. The conflict therefore is a no-brainer for them, they are in a very privileged position and have so much to lose that a fight is on the cards.

On the other hand, in the current financial climate, when the Daily Mail readership learn how much BA cabin crew actually get paid we may see a sudden drop in support for their cause, rather as happened in the last fireman's strike.

[Artificial Horizon]

Ah well he actually already has. We in flight ops have been told we need to save £13 million per year for the next two years. So considering that there are only 3000 of us in flight ops versus 13000 in flight services the savings that BA are asking for are not that different. Problem for the pilots is that most of our processes are relatively streamlined already so the saving may have to be made by pay cuts, for the cabin crew however there is talk of a top to bottom restructuring of the whole system.

[Skylion]

For pilots there are some opportunities for savings without too much pain,- eg the point at which heavy crewing kicks in.

[HighHeeled-FA]

The sad thing is this was always going to be on the cards since perhaps 10 years ago and frankly it comes as no surprise.

Middle eastern airlines (Gulf, EK, Qatar, etc) and South East Asian airlines (SIngapore, Malaysian, Thai, Cathay) provide a service way above European Airlines and cheaper.

When it comes to Long Haul travelling east towards Asia and the Middle East, then there are 10 airlines in my opinion that do the job cheaper and better. Naturally travelling west to N.America BA do have the market lead but this is by default.

If BA want to compete, then obviously they do need to lower costs. jokes asiade, BA CC do have 'relatively' better T&Cs than the rest of them. I use the term "better" very loosely. I just hope that the reduction in T&C will be used so that there are no need for redundancies- however I fear this will not be the case.

The bottom line is BA do need to compete. There are too many airlines in the Middle East and SE Asia doing a far better job and cheaper. I will add also that the Bearded guy saw this a while back which is why the T&Cs for BA's competitor are not as good. I hope this means our jobs are safe, even though the wage is pityful....I hope.

[wobble2plank]

The flight crew were scrutinised a fair few years back and have been benchmarked against other international carriers.

Sorry, but we are 'market rate' boys and girls along with the collation of all the silly block payments into one, simple hourly payment package.

Sorry to pop the bubble.

[rubik101]

The really worrying quote is the following;

BA has also proposed that new employees should have different terms and conditions with almost none of the benefits enjoyed by present cabin crew. Under these proposals, more than 2,000 crew could be taken on in the next two years, possibly employed by a separate entity modelled on low-cost carriers such as Ryanair.

You can see where this is going, can't you?