BA cabin crew back peace deal
13.05.11
The two-year dispute between British Airways and its cabin crew could be over after a deal was agreed between negotiators for the two sides. Cabin crew union Unite presented BA’s latest offer to its members at a mass meeting held near Heathrow yesterday. It will now be put to a formal ballot in the next month, with Unite recommending that members approve the deal. The union also confirmed it would not be calling any more strikes using its current strike mandate.
Unite’s general secretary Len McCluskey called the latest offer from BA ‘an honourable settlement’. Under the deal, cabin crew will get a 2.9% pay rise this year and 3% next year. Full travel concessions for cabin crew will also be restored, which had been one of the major sticking points in the dispute. But the wage rises, which follow two years' of pay freezes, are linked to productivity savings, staff cuts and lower starting pay for new recruits - moves which the union had tried to block. Existing staff have also been promised bonus pay rises of up to 1.1% this year and 0.5% next if they can agree other cost-saving initiatives by July 1.
Mr McCluskey said: ‘We always said that this dispute could only be settled by negotiation, not by confrontation or litigation. And so it has proved. We are delighted to have reached an agreement, which I believe recognises the rights and dignity of cabin crew as well as the commercial requirements of the company. This agreement will allow us to go forward in partnership together to strengthen this great British company - good news for BA, its employees and its customers alike.’
BA said in a statement: ‘We are very pleased the threat of industrial action has been lifted and that we have reached a point where we can put this dispute behind us. Our agreement with Unite involves acknowledgement by the union that the cost-saving structural changes we have made in cabin crew operations are permanent. We have also agreed changes that will modernise our crew industrial relations and help ensure that this kind of dispute cannot occur again.’
The new offer will now be put to Unite members for a vote. The results are expected in June and in the meantime the threat of industrial action has been withdrawn.
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