Illegal? BA are proposing to dismiss 2000 staff. At the moment voluntary, but if there is not the uptake? 2000 staff will be selected by whatever method is chosen, then sacked.

Redundant. Not sacked. Last time I looked, redundancy was legal?

No, they'll be made redundant, which is entirely legal.

Does anyone know how BA will treat the ICC in all this, or will they be kept on?

At last the cards are on the table.2000 crew to go,the union do not think so.I feel a battle is just around the corner.12000 cabin crew against the waterside mob.not an easy one to call.if it comes to a battle,then the statements made by both sides will be found proven or false.i feel the management are treading a very fine line.the costs to the company could be enormous,if the legitimacy of the risk is shown to be false,then heads will roll and fast.

Have a little look at redundancy and the law. You are dismissed by means of redundancy. Dismissed means sacked, just a nice way of putting it. Most sackings are legal, but not all. It will just take one person to lodge an unfair dismissal claim, which is supported by Unite, then all hell breaks loose. Collective support and industrial action.

That is why you have unions, to stop businesses destroying peoples lives.

bermudashape: there will be no battle, there cannot be. If BASSA don't agree, this will be IMPOSED, can you not see that?

litebulbs: fantasy, that's all I can say. :ugh:

Hard to impose a change in working practices on a workforce who are sat at home.12000 people failing to report for duty means absolute disaster for BA.the operation ceases,utter chaos ensues,costs to the company are incalculable.do not underestimate the power of the employees to influence outcomes.just look at past cabin crew disputes,without exception the company has been damaged,financially and have a go managers have paid the price.ok,so impose the threats and just see what happens,i dread to think of the consequences.

A workforce at home is not being paid; employees these days have less leverage, as the trained-up 11-month crew are all able to fly in your place, operating the "smaller" BA fleet that exists in the short time the fleet is grounded. Not to mention the Gatwick crew who don't support you.

If you think the consequences of a strike are to bring down the airline entirely, then logically some crew really are at the point of utter stupidity - why would anyone logically strike if that is the outcome!!!

The outcome is negotiations, which BASSA have singularly failed to engage in for some time.

I am sure that if you are one of the 2000 about to be discarded, then I don't think you would care too much, if BA were to disappear!

Why is the law fantasy?

Future recruitment and transfers into LHR won't be on the EXCISTING contracts. At least that is how I interpreted the email which was sent out tonight. So, they want to get rid of the present T&C and eventually get rid of them. Future aircraft coming to LHR would also most likely be crewed by those crews. Sooner or later present crew would need to transfer because of lack of work.

I don't like the idea of going on a strike at all! I think it will really place us in an awful situation.

How do you think that will affect us?

It will cost BA a huge amount of money and that has to come from somewhere! It could, at worse case scenario, mean that more than 2000 crew has to go.

I think BA know that a strike is in reality very unlikley given the economic climate. It would take a very brave , perhaps stupid, union to call workers out during this downturn as it may just sound the death knell for BA as we know it.

Time for tact and diplomacy as BA management will know that they are under pressure too - they need the make the business profitable and have very little room to negotiate.

There is absolutely nothing illegal in making staff redundant if there is no work for them. With 16 aircraft not flying in the winter one would assume there would be surplus crew. It is unlikely 2000 c/c will decide to leave through normal retirement or for voluntary reasons other than VR. Hopefully 2000 will want to take the v/redundancy offer. I am not so sure this will happen because I have seen that only a few c/c have left in the past few years according to the retirements etc section in the BA news.

I know so many people outside the aircraft industry who have been made redundant recently, few have found alternative employment and are unlikely to do so for a long time.

There are rules to be followed when making dismissing people by redundancy. Rules about recruitment and how and when you are allowed to recruit into a position of the dismissed person. I am sure the BA and Unite legal teams are drawing up battle plans to fight each other on this issue.

Well, a straw poll home saw 4 older members of my crew yelp with delight when I told them the news, they can't afford to take the company up on the offer of VR, but all had been waiting for 50%, so thats 2 of the 2000 out the way.

Another PSR who had 30 years service had been waiting for severance since she was 55, I'm guessing she was 57, but I never ask a women her age, so she wanted to go.

Litbulb, any company can make anyone redundant, true with a large company like BA and a union like Unite, the selection criteria need to be transparent, BA served the legally required 90 days notice yesterday, along with a selection criteria should it come to CR, I am sure Unites solicitors are looking at it now, but if the numbers don't add up expect to see some CR. Expect to see some challenges also, however these will take place a long time after the dust has settled.

I'm with other people here, exactly what are current crew going to go on strike over??

I'm based at LHR and very confused with why BASSA wants ut to strike.

It seems to be a mixture over WW and his management "telling lies" about the financial problems and that costs must come down, the new fleet which is being introduced, a two year pay freeze, reduction of crew (harder work for less money) and obviously what impact it will have on crew rest.

I looked into this a couple of years ago, and much to my surprise (as I too thought this was the case), I found no evidence whatsoever that there is any such law on the UK statute books.

Happy to be proven wrong, but I do not believe there is any restriction on re-recruitment into the same position from which someone has just been made redundant; the rules cover instead re-recruitment of the same person, and tax avoidance by both company and individual of the tax-free "severance".

2 of the 5 crew on our flight last night said they will be taking the VR offer. I suspect many more will follow.

Good luck to all involved.