03.02.10
Changes to cabin crew working practices implemented by BA last year will save it over £80m over 18 months, its lawyers told the High Court in London yesterday. At the start of a court action brought by the Unite union, they said: ‘If BA is ordered to reverse the changes, the cost savings will be lost and it will be put to significant additional expense. Its business will face serious financial peril.’
After nine months of talks with the union, BA cut the number of cabin crew on long-haul flights from Heathrow Airport to 14 from 15 without agreement, which led to cabin crew voting to strike over the Christmas period. Unite, which represents 96% of the BA's 12,000 cabin crew, says the changes implemented November 16 are a breach of contract, whereas BA says that they do not affect individual crew members employment contracts at all. The court case will decide who is correct.
The changes to crewing levels allowed BA to accept 1003 requests from cabin crew for voluntary redundancy and to grant 637 applications for part-time working, with thousands more in the pipeline, the airline's lawyers said. BA secured an injunction preventing 12 days of planned industrial action, but Unite began a fresh ballot last month, with industrial action expected next month unless the dispute is resolved.
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