British Airways Part Time and Career Breaks
 

Good afternoon everyone,

Could anyone provide some details on the part time contracts offered at BA.

I'm particularly interested in the details for first officers and once you are on a part time contract can you go back to full time etc.

Also do BA offer career breaks or sabbaticals?

Thanks

Part Time is being reviewed. (In fact I think the review has being going on forever, but I digress).

That said there are various different types, I can only speak for the "Aspirational" variant,..which is either (roughly speaking) :

72% - two full time months followed by a part time month containing a recency trip.
58% - Full time month alternating with a part time month containing a recency trip.

With the Aspirational contract you do not have a right to return to full time

I'll leave the "Right to Request" contracts to others.

Career breaks/sabbaticals - not that I am aware of, if they do exist they are certainly not commonly taken.

The intent of the aspirational art time contracts I believe at for those starting to wind down their careers. Not that everyone on them is in that boat but I believe that was the original intent.

The right to request contract is exactly that. You have the right to request part time working. BA has the right to refuse the request. However I do not believe that they have, yet the lead in times are quite long at the moment. At peak I believe they were 18 months from request date.

75% is 3 weeks on 1 week off ad infinitum. The 1 week off starts on a Thursday.

The 50% is 2 weeks on 2 weeks off.

Leave, duty free weeks, pay, bonus etc are pro rated.

There is talk of an 85% contract but that is not yet in place. That will mean you will work to 85% of the monthly individual pilot workload (cap) but with no fixed days off. The fear at the moment is that if you're on 85% you'll work just as many days as those on full time but you'll get all the crappy low credit (hours) trips.

The policy on career breaks 3 years ago was that they are available but I doubt in the form most are familiar with - if you wanted to take one you effectively resigned from the company. After 3 years you can apply through the normal recruitment process and should you be successful you would be re-employed on the new entrant contact in force at the time with a new seniority number, new date of joining and a seat on whichever fleet has vacancies.

That said I'm sure in 2008 6-12 month career breaks were offered due to the GFC but were subject to a very short recall period.

..That might just explain why I have never met anyone who has taken one...

Asked out of inquisitiveness and without any direct personal interest - how do maternity (and these days paternity) breaks fit into the grand scheme of things?