British Airways - CC Industrial Relations Mk VI

[petdemouche]

Strike notice, or ballot result notice ?

[winstonsmith]

Union needs to give the company 7 days notice of an industrial action.

The result will be announced on the 22nd - earliest possible date for a strike would be March 2nd. They don't need to notify the company straight away if they intend to call a strike - as long as it is done within 21 days of the ballot result being announced.

The only immediate responsibilty the union has it to inform the company immediately of the result of the ballot.

[petdemouche]

I see... Thanks ! And what is the date of the 25th for ? Shouldn't UNITE announce at this point their decision ?

[winstonsmith]

BASSA has a meeting for their members on the 25th!

My guess is that they will announce the outcome of the ballot - possibly announce strike dates too unless announced already on Monday - and present what they have been able to agree with the company as they are currently in talks - probably not very much but they are probably discussing how 14 crew on 747 should be divided in the different cabins.

[Two-Tone-Blue]

Will the meeting on the 25th lead to a ballot on whether to accept the result of the ballot? or to affirm action on the decision of the ballot? or to discuss when the balloted decision will be actioned? or to agree to have a ballot about the date on which the balloted action is actioned?


[Apologies to Bernard ["Yes Minister"] and to the Mods, of course.]

[Hotel Mode]

My guess is that they will announce the outcome of the ballot

The result is being announced at 2pm on Monday at Unite headquarters. That way they avoid the PR disaster of 1500 'not militant' muppets cheering.

[Litebulbs]

Snas

Originally Posted by Snas

To be a hair splitter, they cant strike because they dont like "something". To be a lawful strike it has to be based on pay or terms and conditions.

They cant strike for example because they dont like a hot towell round being introduced..!

This is an interesting read on how and what for, you could call a strike -

Disclaw Publishing - Employment Law, unfair dismissal, redundancy pay

It makes sobering reading for trade unionists (me), but when you get to the part on trade disputes and what would constitute one, you could argue that adding a hot towel round without increasing the resource to do so, could be about allocation of work. I am sure the courts would look at reasonableness on this however.

[winstonsmith]

The result is being announced at 2pm on Monday at Unite headquarters. That way they avoid the PR disaster of 1500 'not militant' muppets cheering.

Of course - but they will also announce the result at Kempton Park even though most crew would already know of it by then.

[Two-Tone-Blue]

@ Litebulbs.

Points (a) and (c) are interesting. I would guess BA have point (c) covered already.

Amongst the main significant features of a strike, from the narrow point of view of employment law, are:

(a) that time spent on strike is not included in calculating the length of an individual's period of continuous employment (ERA 1996 s.216(1));
(b) that, in general, an employee dismissed while on unofficial strike forfeits any right to unfair dismissal compensation (TULRCA 1992, s.237(1)).
(c) the three month time-limit for presenting a complaint of unfair dismissal is doubled to six months if the employee was on strike when he was dismissed (TULRCA 1992, s.239(2)(a) (see time-limits/for various applications to Employment Tribunals/unfair dismissal claims ).

[Chuchinchow]

The timeline given by the judge in his verdict shows up the fallacy of claiming it's all about imposition though. It's perfectly clear from that it was the union refusing to negotiate that was the reason for BA having to impose a decision.

An excellent point, Papillon. Well spotted!

[Chuchinchow]

Many thanks to everybody who took the trouble to post links to the Malone vs. BA judgment.

Now can anyone point me in the direction of transcripts of the daily proceedings, please? I would like to read each witness's evidence and the barristers interrogations.

The transcripts do not necessarily have to be online, although that would, of course, be a bonus. I am quite prepared to trot off to some court office if necessary.

[Der absolute Hammer]

You could telephone:

William Meade.
020 7269 0360

He is the clerk to John Hendy QC.
He will almost certainly know where you can go to comfortably review the evidence.

[Chuchinchow]

Thank you, Hammer!

[13 please]

ok, i haven't read every single post on here! so apologies if this has been covered already, but, ....

could Mr Walsh do to BA what happened to Swissair?
If my memory serves me right, Swissair was basically closed, then reopened as Swiss.. Then we would all be on the 'new fleet' anyway, (new pay and conditions etc).. And it could all be blamed on us going on strike...
I believe Mr Walsh would go this far...

[Caribbean Boy]

could Mr Walsh do to BA what happened to Swissair?
If my memory serves me right, Swissair was basically closed, then reopened as Swiss.. Then we would all be on the 'new fleet' anyway, (new pay and conditions etc).. And it could all be blamed on us going on strike...
I believe Mr Walsh would go this far...

Willie Walsh has no authority to close down BA, which is still trading and in no immediate danger of going bust. BA is not in the same state as was Swissair, whose ill-advised expansion policy caused the cash flow crisis which brought down the airline.

If you are concerned about your T&Cs, then be aware that a strike could provoke BA into serving 90-day SOSRs to cabin crew with a request to sign the new, inferior contract. Those who don't sign would lose their jobs.

[ChicoG]

Now can anyone point me in the direction of transcripts of the daily proceedings, please? I would like to read each witness's evidence and the barristers interrogations.

You can read a BASSA-slanted version of a couple of days here:

CrewForumFriends.com - The Front Page

The highlight for me is Nigel, clearly brought in for his loquaciousness, who gave a fairly feeble answer when asked by Bruce Carr how he could complain about CSD's having to do a bit of work when he's been too sick to fly since before it happened.



I would imagine the judge was rolling his eyes even at this early stage in proceedings.

[13 please]

Caribbean Boy, thanks for that info.

I believe if we strike, we will end up on the new fleet, somehow.

[winstonsmith]

Seen the latest crap at one of the other forums - people suggesting BASSA should increase the membership fee and donate to the suspended crew?

[Papillon]

3,500 British Airways staff to break cabin crew strike | Mail Online

Interesting article, not least because of its claim to be from a union source.

[Snas]

Short Selling

The damage being done to BA as a result of this comes in many shapes, here is just one: -

BA has been targeted by short-sellers - Telegraph