British Airways - CC Industrial Relations Mk V
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Maybe I do but thinking on how much our salaries vary from one month to another it won't really make a difference. Most crew also got an increment this year.
This is where we are now. If crew have a problem with it they can always send their receipts and hope for a refund. Ask yourself this, how many do you think will do it? Not that many I'd say!
This is where we are now. If crew have a problem with it they can always send their receipts and hope for a refund. Ask yourself this, how many do you think will do it? Not that many I'd say!
Thanks for your replies, they are mostly quite enlightening.
I have made the same point in a few posts, that you as a group have been badly let down by your union in the tax negotiations. (Yes, negotiations). You're happy to reply to other parts of my posts, but you don't seem able to respond to that specific, critical point.
I can only assume that there are one or more reasons for this:
1. You can't think of a good defence of the union's actions.
2. Bassa haven't responded with the party line, and you're waiting for it to come.
3. You don't understand what happened.
4. You disagree with the union's actions but can't criticise Bassa for whatever reason.
Am I warm?
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....and here it comes....!
Willie Walsh has spent over two years dotting 'i's and crossing 't's to get to the point where he can lay his Royal Flush down on the table and free up another middle finger for BASSA's viewing pleasure. He has engineered the perfect storm and BASSA have been too busy stamping their feet and meeting with HMRC to even notice the forboding, poo-laden thunder clouds rolling in.
Willie can't take ALL the credit though....BASSA and BASSA alone have ensured that the BA Cabin Crew are the most despised and disliked working group in the UK, and they don't appear to be too popular within the company either, hey ho!
When the baying woolly goons at tomorrows meeting decide that striking will definitely work the second time around, and they will, be sure to check your post carefully, because I'll bet that underneath that ballot letter to destroy your career, my career, people you've never met careers, livelihoods and families, you'll notice Willie Walsh's unbeatable Royal Flush- "your contract of employment with British Airways will be terminated in 90 days time, please hand in your uniform and ID- thanks for 30 years of constipation, go 'flush' yourself....PCCC members may disregard this letter"
Willie can't take ALL the credit though....BASSA and BASSA alone have ensured that the BA Cabin Crew are the most despised and disliked working group in the UK, and they don't appear to be too popular within the company either, hey ho!
When the baying woolly goons at tomorrows meeting decide that striking will definitely work the second time around, and they will, be sure to check your post carefully, because I'll bet that underneath that ballot letter to destroy your career, my career, people you've never met careers, livelihoods and families, you'll notice Willie Walsh's unbeatable Royal Flush- "your contract of employment with British Airways will be terminated in 90 days time, please hand in your uniform and ID- thanks for 30 years of constipation, go 'flush' yourself....PCCC members may disregard this letter"
Last edited by flybymerchant; 18th Jan 2010 at 03:41.
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they can always send their receipts and hope for a refund
MissM
It is now far too late to do as you blithely suggest. The time to send in receipts was when the negoatiations between the Treasury and BASSA were supposed to have taken place.
HMRC will not consider indivudual cases. Our precious BASSA representatives made a godalmighty XXXX of things and now all of us have to take the consequences.
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midman
I do understand what happened! We failed this receipt exercise which took place around a year and a half ago and it has become very clear that we don't spend all our allowances. It's obvious we don't spend all our allowances and it makes sense we would need to pay taxes on them as if they were an income. We now have to pay taxes on 59% of our meal allowances. Satisfied?
BASSA has not responded but I would think they are waiting until tomorrow's meeting. Apart from that I don't need them, or anyone else, to tell me what to say as I have a mind of my own. As I said in an earlier reply I think that this could have been better dealt with. We probably never would have got a deal good as yours but you are also on a different pay system which could very well be the explanation.
I do understand what happened! We failed this receipt exercise which took place around a year and a half ago and it has become very clear that we don't spend all our allowances. It's obvious we don't spend all our allowances and it makes sense we would need to pay taxes on them as if they were an income. We now have to pay taxes on 59% of our meal allowances. Satisfied?
BASSA has not responded but I would think they are waiting until tomorrow's meeting. Apart from that I don't need them, or anyone else, to tell me what to say as I have a mind of my own. As I said in an earlier reply I think that this could have been better dealt with. We probably never would have got a deal good as yours but you are also on a different pay system which could very well be the explanation.
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La Pouquelaye
No, it's not too late and these are actually two different issues. Read the letter from HMRC.
It is now far too late to do as you blithely suggest. The time to send in receipts was when the negoatiations between the Treasury and BASSA were supposed to have taken place.
HMRC will not consider indivudual cases. Our precious BASSA representatives made a godalmighty XXXX of things and now all of us have to take the consequences.
HMRC will not consider indivudual cases. Our precious BASSA representatives made a godalmighty XXXX of things and now all of us have to take the consequences.
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Glamgirl
Sooner or later you would probably get your money back as long as you spend all of your allowances on layovers. Or, are you suggesting that meal allowances should be taxed as MAP even though you're saving all of it?
BASSA could have dealt with it better but as they haven't made an announcment yet maybe it's best to wait for their explanation to this issue. Maybe they'll give it tomorrow!
The point about the increment to your salary is that you won't really notice this difference.
Sooner or later you would probably get your money back as long as you spend all of your allowances on layovers. Or, are you suggesting that meal allowances should be taxed as MAP even though you're saving all of it?
BASSA could have dealt with it better but as they haven't made an announcment yet maybe it's best to wait for their explanation to this issue. Maybe they'll give it tomorrow!
The point about the increment to your salary is that you won't really notice this difference.
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MissM,
My point about the increment is that I will miss it. The price of petrol, food and a variety of other things have increased. That's inflation. That's what the increments are for, not to substitute a badly dealt with tax situation (by union).
Gg
As a general ps. We have a heck of a lot more than 5 followers of PCCC.
The point about the increment to your salary is that you won't really notice this difference
Gg
As a general ps. We have a heck of a lot more than 5 followers of PCCC.
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I do understand what happened! We failed this receipt exercise which took place around a year and a half ago and it has become very clear that we don't spend all our allowances. It's obvious we don't spend all our allowances and it makes sense we would need to pay taxes on them as if they were an income. We now have to pay taxes on 59% of our meal allowances. Satisfied?
HMRC came to Balpa and to Bassa and told them what the resulting tax would be.
Balpa went away, did research, negotiated, and analysed. After hundreds of hours of work I'm paying 1.2% more tax.
Bassa did nothing, you're paying 7-14% more tax, depending on your marginal tax rate.
Nothing to do with how we're paid, it's all about what action the union took.
With what's coming, I'd be very worried about the ability of your reps, if I weren't already embarassed enough.
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Hi Troll again,
I am interested in this new body, PCCC. Has there been any discussion with BA over this yet? It would have to be a voluntary recognition deal, as BA already have a union involved in collective bargaining and the CAC would not look at a new recognition agreement because of this.
Would the PCCC be looking for negotiating rights, or just operate as a consultation group?
I am interested in this new body, PCCC. Has there been any discussion with BA over this yet? It would have to be a voluntary recognition deal, as BA already have a union involved in collective bargaining and the CAC would not look at a new recognition agreement because of this.
Would the PCCC be looking for negotiating rights, or just operate as a consultation group?
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Or, are you suggesting that meal allowances should be taxed as MAP even though you're saving all of it?
easyjet have had their allowances taxed only recently.
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So what a big debate about taxes it moves on and on who cares about all the blame being spread around we only need to concentrate on the reballot. Who would i rather have a chat with Villie or Gordon the answer is Gordon who seems quite a nice chap. When we reballot as you know we will gather at KEMPTON PARK, starting 11am on MONDAY 18th JAN 2010 the troops will rally once again in support of our STRONG union. As for comments from NON CABIN CREW we will prefer to ignore them just like on some bus trips from hotels when the subjects are raised. We will stand by our Union thats all i have to say good night and remember don't have nightmares.
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As explained previously, the way that the union failed on the tax issue was that the reps should have negotiated with HMRC about the tax rates. The balpa reps managed to do so, so why didn't bassa? And for bassa claiming they didn't know about this until yesterday, I have one word: unbelieveable.
Gg
Gg
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A Lurker - Actually I think it said they got the FINAL one yesterday. As did everyone else. However BALPA, being proactive and noticing the preliminary results were going to result in a big taxfree allowance decrease, took the initiative and dealt with it; providing arguments and valid reasons to HMRC about why a further decrease in the tax free allowance (which i wont go into here) would be unfair on the membership.
It is good for you that the money you will be losing is insignificant, however if you were Gatwick based and earning the minimum wage, and taking even a bigger cut, you might have felt differently. BASSA decisions directly affect me as my fiancee is crew and her income makes up part of our disposable income - and we are both outraged that BASSA always seem to make the worst possible decisions - they fight meaningless battles while forgetting about key issues (pensions, gatwick mixed fleet, taxes just to name a few).
It is good for you that the money you will be losing is insignificant, however if you were Gatwick based and earning the minimum wage, and taking even a bigger cut, you might have felt differently. BASSA decisions directly affect me as my fiancee is crew and her income makes up part of our disposable income - and we are both outraged that BASSA always seem to make the worst possible decisions - they fight meaningless battles while forgetting about key issues (pensions, gatwick mixed fleet, taxes just to name a few).
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When are y'all planning the next strike?
I have just spent close on 3K on tickets with BA for my holiday: reason being I believe that the BA is a great product.
If you plan to go on strike I would be grateful of a heads up so that I can rebook with RB's chav airline.
I have just spent close on 3K on tickets with BA for my holiday: reason being I believe that the BA is a great product.
If you plan to go on strike I would be grateful of a heads up so that I can rebook with RB's chav airline.
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I think it is hilarious how some people who speculate and create rumours about us being forced onto new fleet etc do not seem to care about the new tax rise. I know it may not be much of a drop - but it ain't half ironic that these crew don't even know how much money they ''might'' (key word!) lose on New Fleet IF (big if!) they were forced onto it - YET they go on about how terrible New Fleet would be and we have to strike for 12 days over it (until BA goes bust!) yet they say that the new tax rise only affects us a little bit!
They get into a tizz about something that hasn't happened and we don't know if or what extent it will, yet something that does affect us especially us post-1997ers well they don't care really!
They get into a tizz about something that hasn't happened and we don't know if or what extent it will, yet something that does affect us especially us post-1997ers well they don't care really!
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midman
Obviously we failed this exercise as we have been given this tax change due to the fact that we don't seem to spend enough of our allowances on layovers.
When did BASSA meet with HMRC? I assume that they did meet to discuss this with them. I have not heard anything about this since it was on the table in 2008 when crew had to save their receipts. Something I don't believe is that BASSA claims that they only heard about this the other day.
What could have been done differently? A better deal of course could have been reached with HMRC and the tax raise had been similar to yours or even less than that. Even a percentage less than what we have now would have been better.
How do you know that BASSA did nothing?
Obviously we failed this exercise as we have been given this tax change due to the fact that we don't seem to spend enough of our allowances on layovers.
When did BASSA meet with HMRC? I assume that they did meet to discuss this with them. I have not heard anything about this since it was on the table in 2008 when crew had to save their receipts. Something I don't believe is that BASSA claims that they only heard about this the other day.
What could have been done differently? A better deal of course could have been reached with HMRC and the tax raise had been similar to yours or even less than that. Even a percentage less than what we have now would have been better.
How do you know that BASSA did nothing?
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Thanks, found that on-line
Originally Posted by Sky News
Thousands of British Airways cabin crew are to hold a fresh ballot on strikes, raising a renewed threat of disruption to flights.
Unite said 13,000 of its members at the airline would vote again on whether to take industrial action in a long-running dispute over jobs, pay and working conditions.
The ballot will start in a week's time and raises the prospect of action in the run-up to the busy Easter period.
The cabin crew were due to stage 12 days of strikes over Christmas, but the High Court ruled that the strikes would have been unlawful because Unite had balloted workers who had subsequently left the airline.
The previous ballot returned a 9-1 majority in favour of action in an 80% turnout, which the union said reflected the anger of cabin crew at imposed changes to their working conditions.
December strike was halted
The new move follows a failure to reach an agreement despite talks over the past few weeks.
Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of Unite, said: "We have been engaged in intensive discussions with the company over the last few days, but unfortunately we have not been able to secure an agreement yet.
"We therefore have to honour our commitment to give our members the voice they were denied by the courts before Christmas, and hold a fresh ballot for industrial action.
"In notifying the company of this, I have reiterated that we want talks to continue, and that the union is prepared to meet any place, any time, to try and reach an agreement.
"We have told management all along that this dispute, and the damage it does to BA's prospects, can only finally be resolved through negotiation.
"That remains our position, and I hope the company will make the best use of the time available before the ballot closes."
The ballot will commence in one week's time.
Unite said 13,000 of its members at the airline would vote again on whether to take industrial action in a long-running dispute over jobs, pay and working conditions.
The ballot will start in a week's time and raises the prospect of action in the run-up to the busy Easter period.
The cabin crew were due to stage 12 days of strikes over Christmas, but the High Court ruled that the strikes would have been unlawful because Unite had balloted workers who had subsequently left the airline.
The previous ballot returned a 9-1 majority in favour of action in an 80% turnout, which the union said reflected the anger of cabin crew at imposed changes to their working conditions.
December strike was halted
The new move follows a failure to reach an agreement despite talks over the past few weeks.
Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of Unite, said: "We have been engaged in intensive discussions with the company over the last few days, but unfortunately we have not been able to secure an agreement yet.
"We therefore have to honour our commitment to give our members the voice they were denied by the courts before Christmas, and hold a fresh ballot for industrial action.
"In notifying the company of this, I have reiterated that we want talks to continue, and that the union is prepared to meet any place, any time, to try and reach an agreement.
"We have told management all along that this dispute, and the damage it does to BA's prospects, can only finally be resolved through negotiation.
"That remains our position, and I hope the company will make the best use of the time available before the ballot closes."
The ballot will commence in one week's time.