BA Strike - Your Thoughts & Questions V
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Questionnaires and Appraisal
I always understood that, at least for WW, the questionnaires were handed out by the CSD to the passengers in seats that were pre-determined, and therefore the CSD was not able to influence the results by choosing the passengers who said “please”, and “thank you”, and “that was excellent”.
My experience in a career where we always were seeking good, and honest, customer feed back is that it is extremely hard to achieve. Ask folk at the time and they often are (understandably), ‘over influenced’ by the event that has just happened to them. So an excellent cabin service, and then the item they wanted is not available on the duty free cart, and they damn their whole experience. Ask them a few days later (perhaps by eMail), and they either don’t reply, or produce a bland response that is not terribly helpful. Many customer service questionnaire are banal in the extreme. I shocked some poor young lady the other week, who had called me on behalf of a motor manufacturer to ask about my experience at one of their franchised dealers, by commenting that their telephone questionnaire was clearly designed solely to give some senior suit in marketing a nice warm feeling, and they could achieve that just by p**ing into their Wellingtons.
Using customer feedback to rank customer facing staff needs considerable care, and I hope that BA is organised to do this fairly. One Lady’s “Good” is another Lady’s “Excellent”. I was forcibly reminded of this many years ago when a Senior Royal Navy Officer commented on my over-use of the adjective ‘Good’ in a staff paper that I had written at his invitation. I had failed to understand that, in the RN, the Friday before Easter Day is ‘Satisfactory’ Friday. And I also had the experience of arriving to run a Company where the Management Team had ranked every one of their staff ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’, and wanted bonuses to suit. It took a long time to get across the message that in any group of people, there must be some sort of normal distribution of attributes; and whist our people’s performance overall might be streets ahead of the competition, within our population, there must be a continuum of performance from “Excellent” down to “Poor”.
Getting fair performance assessments, and getting managers to rank people fairly, to manage poor performers to improve, or, if they can’t, to seek alternative opportunities, is hard; but it’s not impossible. I hope that the systems put in place that will determine cabin crew bonuses are transparent and clearly understood by the cabin crew and their appraisers.
My experience in a career where we always were seeking good, and honest, customer feed back is that it is extremely hard to achieve. Ask folk at the time and they often are (understandably), ‘over influenced’ by the event that has just happened to them. So an excellent cabin service, and then the item they wanted is not available on the duty free cart, and they damn their whole experience. Ask them a few days later (perhaps by eMail), and they either don’t reply, or produce a bland response that is not terribly helpful. Many customer service questionnaire are banal in the extreme. I shocked some poor young lady the other week, who had called me on behalf of a motor manufacturer to ask about my experience at one of their franchised dealers, by commenting that their telephone questionnaire was clearly designed solely to give some senior suit in marketing a nice warm feeling, and they could achieve that just by p**ing into their Wellingtons.
Using customer feedback to rank customer facing staff needs considerable care, and I hope that BA is organised to do this fairly. One Lady’s “Good” is another Lady’s “Excellent”. I was forcibly reminded of this many years ago when a Senior Royal Navy Officer commented on my over-use of the adjective ‘Good’ in a staff paper that I had written at his invitation. I had failed to understand that, in the RN, the Friday before Easter Day is ‘Satisfactory’ Friday. And I also had the experience of arriving to run a Company where the Management Team had ranked every one of their staff ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’, and wanted bonuses to suit. It took a long time to get across the message that in any group of people, there must be some sort of normal distribution of attributes; and whist our people’s performance overall might be streets ahead of the competition, within our population, there must be a continuum of performance from “Excellent” down to “Poor”.
Getting fair performance assessments, and getting managers to rank people fairly, to manage poor performers to improve, or, if they can’t, to seek alternative opportunities, is hard; but it’s not impossible. I hope that the systems put in place that will determine cabin crew bonuses are transparent and clearly understood by the cabin crew and their appraisers.
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Gem,
I agree with a lot of what you say and yes they are supposed to go to specific seats.
A lot of what you say is true and these customer surveys are not a good or accurate way of assessing individuals.
They do show trends and they are more than just about the cabin crew. They talk about food, seating, check-in etc. so they can flag up specific problems on specific routes.
Staff assessments are always hard and just as it is not good practice to say everyone is good, it is also not good practice to encourage people to assess their staff, making the assumption that a certain percentage must be below standard either.
True and valuable assessments are what is required and when someone is good it should be ok to say so. Many companies put their managers under a lot of pressure to find a fault in someone or something that needs improvement, whether it exists or not and this actually can lead to demotivated staff because they wonder what will ever make their employer happy!
So good and fair appraisals are as you say important and even more so if your pay depends on it!!.
I agree with a lot of what you say and yes they are supposed to go to specific seats.
A lot of what you say is true and these customer surveys are not a good or accurate way of assessing individuals.
They do show trends and they are more than just about the cabin crew. They talk about food, seating, check-in etc. so they can flag up specific problems on specific routes.
Staff assessments are always hard and just as it is not good practice to say everyone is good, it is also not good practice to encourage people to assess their staff, making the assumption that a certain percentage must be below standard either.
True and valuable assessments are what is required and when someone is good it should be ok to say so. Many companies put their managers under a lot of pressure to find a fault in someone or something that needs improvement, whether it exists or not and this actually can lead to demotivated staff because they wonder what will ever make their employer happy!
So good and fair appraisals are as you say important and even more so if your pay depends on it!!.
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Questionnaires and Appraisal
Betty Girl,
Please don’t take this personally (!), as I and the many who observe this and ‘the other’ thread are very grateful for your continual contributions.
But I do have to observe that a reluctance to appraise some staff as being lower performers than others is one of the hurdles that a good manager must overcome. You mentioned that: “it is also not good practice to encourage people to assess their staff, making the assumption that a certain percentage must be below standard either.” Well, it’s not just semantics, but someone may be performing perfectly adequately, and delivering ‘to standard’, but they may be only a satisfactory performer compared to others who are very good or excellent.
The inevitability is that the performance of individuals in a group will fall into some sort of normal distribution, the classic bell curve. Often it may be very hard to identify differences between the high and low performers; that means that the bell curve is very narrow. But within that population, the average performance is, by definition, 1.0; and if one has someone who is ‘excellent’, and one wants to rank them as a 1.2, then one has to rank someone as a 0.8, or perhaps two folk as 0.9. Ranking everyone as at least 1.0, and then some as 1.1, and a few as 1.2 means an increase in the average… and so the folk ranked as 1.0 are coming out as below average; that’s what it means.
Tough, isn’t it? And made all the more tough by your modus operandi, where you are working as a virtual team, and not able to observe people for more than the duration of perhaps two flights.
Please don’t take this personally (!), as I and the many who observe this and ‘the other’ thread are very grateful for your continual contributions.
But I do have to observe that a reluctance to appraise some staff as being lower performers than others is one of the hurdles that a good manager must overcome. You mentioned that: “it is also not good practice to encourage people to assess their staff, making the assumption that a certain percentage must be below standard either.” Well, it’s not just semantics, but someone may be performing perfectly adequately, and delivering ‘to standard’, but they may be only a satisfactory performer compared to others who are very good or excellent.
The inevitability is that the performance of individuals in a group will fall into some sort of normal distribution, the classic bell curve. Often it may be very hard to identify differences between the high and low performers; that means that the bell curve is very narrow. But within that population, the average performance is, by definition, 1.0; and if one has someone who is ‘excellent’, and one wants to rank them as a 1.2, then one has to rank someone as a 0.8, or perhaps two folk as 0.9. Ranking everyone as at least 1.0, and then some as 1.1, and a few as 1.2 means an increase in the average… and so the folk ranked as 1.0 are coming out as below average; that’s what it means.
Tough, isn’t it? And made all the more tough by your modus operandi, where you are working as a virtual team, and not able to observe people for more than the duration of perhaps two flights.
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Sigh. More mixed messages again. Unless Unite reigns in the branches, I can see history repeating itself....
6th May 2011 - Update & Members meeting
As you will have seen from the recent Unite press release, clarity surrounding the extension previously agreed to our industrial action ballot has now been agreed with British Airways to be midnight on 15th of May.
However, it is the intention not to follow the pattern of recent failed negotiations and to move away from any degree of last minute brinkmanship from either side.
With this in mind, it is very important we update you on what has happened and what will now happen.
Talks have continued this week; again some positive progress has been made. Yet it would also be fair to say there still remain several significant challenges to overcome.
Talks will therefore continue today and tomorrow, there will then be a final effort commencing Sunday evening and ending Tuesday Night. The old adage that "if there is a will, there is way" could not be more apt and we will not need any longer, to know if this is the case.
To repeat, it is both sides' intention to conclude discussion by midnight on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning the CC89 Negotiating Committee will be briefed on progress achieved, On Wednesday afternoon ALL reps will meet to also be briefed.
The next day, Thursday 12th May at 11.30am, a meeting is already planned for all members. Venue currently TBA.
At this meeting you will be fully updated on our progress and asked to make a decision on whether to proceed with strike action or alternatively to put any settlement offer achieved to a postal ballot of all members. It is that simple.
We do not need to emphasise the importance of this meeting and indeed the decision to be taken, we will hope to see you there.
As you will have seen from the recent Unite press release, clarity surrounding the extension previously agreed to our industrial action ballot has now been agreed with British Airways to be midnight on 15th of May.
However, it is the intention not to follow the pattern of recent failed negotiations and to move away from any degree of last minute brinkmanship from either side.
With this in mind, it is very important we update you on what has happened and what will now happen.
Talks have continued this week; again some positive progress has been made. Yet it would also be fair to say there still remain several significant challenges to overcome.
Talks will therefore continue today and tomorrow, there will then be a final effort commencing Sunday evening and ending Tuesday Night. The old adage that "if there is a will, there is way" could not be more apt and we will not need any longer, to know if this is the case.
To repeat, it is both sides' intention to conclude discussion by midnight on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning the CC89 Negotiating Committee will be briefed on progress achieved, On Wednesday afternoon ALL reps will meet to also be briefed.
The next day, Thursday 12th May at 11.30am, a meeting is already planned for all members. Venue currently TBA.
At this meeting you will be fully updated on our progress and asked to make a decision on whether to proceed with strike action or alternatively to put any settlement offer achieved to a postal ballot of all members. It is that simple.
We do not need to emphasise the importance of this meeting and indeed the decision to be taken, we will hope to see you there.
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ah, so once again union democracy rules !!. I find it incredible that union members can accept a situation where soething as serious as determining whether or not to put a management offer to members in a postal ballot, can be determined by a show of hands at a meeting where you can guarantee that only around 10% of the membership might be present. What is the function of the executive committee ? Surely, as they have been largely instrumental (one assumes) in agreeing the deal, they should say whether it should be put to the membership. Anything less is a total abdication of responsibility.
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Not a cat in Hell's chance the tiny militant faction who will actually turn up for this meeting would dare put up a show of hands which accepts the offer, and in doing so let's their mandate for strike action lapse.
So it's a foregone conclusion that the show of hands will reject almost any offer short of re-instatement of the Sacked & Suspended, full restoration of staff travel, continuation of legal cases and abolition of Mixed Fleet.
It will be very interesting to see what action Unite takes after this Meeting to reign in its errant branches.
While I don't think Unite would sanction Unprotected action, I can see it wanting to be seen to support its Branch Executive, while at the same time setting out the risks of taking Unprotected Action to its membership (something BASSA has never done).
That would further strengthen Unite's agenda (to directly control BA's cabin crew membership, and more power to them) while marginalising BASSA and its militant leadership.
I would expect a BASSA-proposed unprotected strike before the end of the month, Unite treading very carefully to inform members they risk being sacked, almost imperceptible effect on the BA Operation and several BASSA crew members sacked for not turning up for work before support for action peters out, and Unite assumes direct control of the Branches, and agrees a settlement with BA which will in some way involve some sort of pay increase for Mixed Fleet (the part MF plays in this is still not clear to me, but it's definitely significant in winning over Unite).
I still don't see the PCCC – Professional Cabin Crew Council playing a credible role in all this.
So it's a foregone conclusion that the show of hands will reject almost any offer short of re-instatement of the Sacked & Suspended, full restoration of staff travel, continuation of legal cases and abolition of Mixed Fleet.
It will be very interesting to see what action Unite takes after this Meeting to reign in its errant branches.
While I don't think Unite would sanction Unprotected action, I can see it wanting to be seen to support its Branch Executive, while at the same time setting out the risks of taking Unprotected Action to its membership (something BASSA has never done).
That would further strengthen Unite's agenda (to directly control BA's cabin crew membership, and more power to them) while marginalising BASSA and its militant leadership.
I would expect a BASSA-proposed unprotected strike before the end of the month, Unite treading very carefully to inform members they risk being sacked, almost imperceptible effect on the BA Operation and several BASSA crew members sacked for not turning up for work before support for action peters out, and Unite assumes direct control of the Branches, and agrees a settlement with BA which will in some way involve some sort of pay increase for Mixed Fleet (the part MF plays in this is still not clear to me, but it's definitely significant in winning over Unite).
I still don't see the PCCC – Professional Cabin Crew Council playing a credible role in all this.
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VK
you forget that the PCCC are not in dispute with BA, so have no involvement. Moreover, at present the PCCC are not recognised by BA as a negotiating body. That is not to say that they may not have influence, just that in the current setup it would seem they have no axe to grind.
I'm more interested in the legality regarding the way in which the branches intend to determine whether to put the deal on offer to the membership for ballot. Maybe the union guuys on here could comment on it. If the branch constitution allows this sort of thing to happen, it really does show that trade unionism in the UK hasn't moved on since the 1960's and 70's and has a whiff of corruption about it.
you forget that the PCCC are not in dispute with BA, so have no involvement. Moreover, at present the PCCC are not recognised by BA as a negotiating body. That is not to say that they may not have influence, just that in the current setup it would seem they have no axe to grind.
I'm more interested in the legality regarding the way in which the branches intend to determine whether to put the deal on offer to the membership for ballot. Maybe the union guuys on here could comment on it. If the branch constitution allows this sort of thing to happen, it really does show that trade unionism in the UK hasn't moved on since the 1960's and 70's and has a whiff of corruption about it.
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Vintage Krug
Is it time for Unite to remove the "Devil Eyes" Photo from its website? . FRONT PAGE HOME PAGE
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I don't know what version you are picking up, that face disappeared from the page I pick (by following your link) months ago. How can that be, I wonder?
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that face disappeared from the page I pick (by following your link) months ago. How can that be, I wonder?
very unproffessional of a trade union to have such nonsense on its site IMHO.
Imagine the cries of bullying if BA had a devil eyes picture of the BASSA reps on one of its web sites... double standards!
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VK says:
Very interesting prediction VK but I wonder if Unite will allow the strike to go ahead when it potentially risks being sued for unprotected strike damages by BA?
Are you postulating that Unite will say "No" in writing (as it did with WindowsGate) then BASSA will go ahead anyway and unofficially?
I would expect a BASSA-proposed unprotected strike before the end of the month, Unite treading very carefully to inform members they risk being sacked, almost imperceptible effect on the BA Operation and several BASSA crew members sacked for not turning up for work before support for action peters out, and Unite assumes direct control of the Branches, and agrees a settlement with BA which will in some way involve some sort of pay increase for Mixed Fleet (the part MF plays in this is still not clear to me, but it's definitely significant in winning over Unite).
I still don't see the PCCC – Professional Cabin Crew Council playing a credible role in all this.
I still don't see the PCCC – Professional Cabin Crew Council playing a credible role in all this.
Are you postulating that Unite will say "No" in writing (as it did with WindowsGate) then BASSA will go ahead anyway and unofficially?
Last edited by AV Flyer; 8th May 2011 at 13:51.
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BASSA's executive (whosoever that may be) is being so transparent here. It is abuntantly clear, just like with the previous WW/TW negotiated offer, that BASSA has no intention whatsoever of any vote ever being put to its membership.
Rather than scuppering the membership offer vote at the executive level, like last time, it is going through the pretense of appearing to give the call to its members but is going for a meeting at very short notice at an undisclosed venue arranged by an executive who no longer work for BA but cannot be voted out and who will benefit by the dispute not being settled while asking for a non-anonymous show of hands right in front of the very people who told them if you don't agree with us you can leave BASSA!
You can see why WW/BA made it a stipulation to TW/Unite that it recommend BASSA/CC89 put the offer to a vote of its members.
I would suggest that BA places a similar stipulation on this offer to Unite and further defines the vote as an anonymous postal ballot of all members balloted in the original strike action rather than a shady, contrived, show of hands as above. BA can extend the strike call deadline some more to cover the ballot period.
If either Unite refuses to accept this stipulation or BASSA's/CC89's executives continue to play the above games it will be clear to the everyone where the culpability lies.
Further, isn't this just like the very first Xmas 2009 strike call when after TW/WW agreed an extension to allow time to ballot the executives went ahead called the strike anyway?
Yet further evidence that this whole matter is a power struggle/ego game between BA's management and the Union/Branch executives with no thought whatsoever for the membership.
BASSA's executive will call this dispute over only when full power and control of BA's IFCE operations is returned to it and not before and even should this happen (which it never will) the members still wouldn't be given a chance to vote as it would be deemed unnecessary!
When will the rank and file learn that their subscription paid executives are only acting in their own selfish interests and not that of their members?
Rather than scuppering the membership offer vote at the executive level, like last time, it is going through the pretense of appearing to give the call to its members but is going for a meeting at very short notice at an undisclosed venue arranged by an executive who no longer work for BA but cannot be voted out and who will benefit by the dispute not being settled while asking for a non-anonymous show of hands right in front of the very people who told them if you don't agree with us you can leave BASSA!
You can see why WW/BA made it a stipulation to TW/Unite that it recommend BASSA/CC89 put the offer to a vote of its members.
I would suggest that BA places a similar stipulation on this offer to Unite and further defines the vote as an anonymous postal ballot of all members balloted in the original strike action rather than a shady, contrived, show of hands as above. BA can extend the strike call deadline some more to cover the ballot period.
If either Unite refuses to accept this stipulation or BASSA's/CC89's executives continue to play the above games it will be clear to the everyone where the culpability lies.
Further, isn't this just like the very first Xmas 2009 strike call when after TW/WW agreed an extension to allow time to ballot the executives went ahead called the strike anyway?
Yet further evidence that this whole matter is a power struggle/ego game between BA's management and the Union/Branch executives with no thought whatsoever for the membership.
BASSA's executive will call this dispute over only when full power and control of BA's IFCE operations is returned to it and not before and even should this happen (which it never will) the members still wouldn't be given a chance to vote as it would be deemed unnecessary!
When will the rank and file learn that their subscription paid executives are only acting in their own selfish interests and not that of their members?
Last edited by AV Flyer; 8th May 2011 at 14:15.
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If Unite allows a strike without the offer being put to the whole membership it will completely destroy whatever is left of the relationship between BA and Unite. Hopefully it is just posturing.
Perversely, this could play into BA's hands if BASSA thwarting a deal prompts a wave of resignations from BASSA and a very poorly supported strike will leave members with nothing. No pay deal, no full staff travel, no facilities agreement and no agreement on Mixed Fleet.
Perversely, this could play into BA's hands if BASSA thwarting a deal prompts a wave of resignations from BASSA and a very poorly supported strike will leave members with nothing. No pay deal, no full staff travel, no facilities agreement and no agreement on Mixed Fleet.
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It's a bit like watching a slow-motion train wreck.
BA, under its new CEO, needed to have tried one more time by giving the Union and its Branches one more chance while conveniently taking the opportunity of avoiding disruptions over Easter and the Wedding.
When this fails BA will have a firm mandate to let the axe fall .......
BA, under its new CEO, needed to have tried one more time by giving the Union and its Branches one more chance while conveniently taking the opportunity of avoiding disruptions over Easter and the Wedding.
When this fails BA will have a firm mandate to let the axe fall .......
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BASSA/CC89 is a branch and that means it is controlled (or supposed to be controlled) by Unite. BASSA does not have the power to authorise the calling of strike action. It is impotent, and especially so in the face of the many Unite VCC members.
BASSA/CC89 and Unite are separate entities and there is no automatic link between the two; Unite could terminate the arrangement as its discretion. It might just come to that!
Any cabin crew who remains a member of BASSA is not only wasting a not inconsiderable several hundred pound per annum, but is actively condoning this nonsense. Resign and join Unite directly, if you still feel you want to be a union member.
BASSA/CC89 and Unite are separate entities and there is no automatic link between the two; Unite could terminate the arrangement as its discretion. It might just come to that!
Any cabin crew who remains a member of BASSA is not only wasting a not inconsiderable several hundred pound per annum, but is actively condoning this nonsense. Resign and join Unite directly, if you still feel you want to be a union member.
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VK, Snas, Richard.
Quote:
I don't know what version you are picking up, that face disappeared from the page I pick (by following your link) months ago. How can that be, I wonder?
It is very much there and has been throughout. Top right hand corner...
I don't know what version you are picking up, that face disappeared from the page I pick (by following your link) months ago. How can that be, I wonder?
It is very much there and has been throughout. Top right hand corner...