A cabin crew union claims British Airways have not “covered themselves in glory” in the way it furloughed the vast majority of its 16,500 strong community of cabin crew. Last week, British Airways announced it had struck a deal with unions that would see at least 80 per cent of the airline’s workforce sent home from work with almost immediate effect because of a massive reduction in flights caused by the COVID-19 crisis.
The deal agreed between the airline and employee representatives mean workers can take advantage of a government-backed ‘job retention scheme’ where staffers continue to be paid at least 80 per cent of their normal wages during the crisis. British Airways has withdrawn its initial threat to make droves of workers redundant and terms and conditions remain intact.
While acknowledging that furloughing tens of thousands of employees at short notice is “clearly a difficult and complex task” a cabin crew union also says the airline “have not covered themselves in glory in the way it has been handled.”
“The most logical and obvious solution would have been to use volunteers, that way we would have a willing workforce. Sadly, that was not adopted despite our best efforts,” the internal memo continues. Instead, British Airways has been accused of implementing a ‘Russian Roulette’ lottery system to decide who would be sent home and who would be kept on to carry on working flights.
The result, claims the union is that there have been “hundreds of emotional conversations” with cabin crew who have been forced to work despite being at a higher risk from COVID-19 or living with someone at heightened risk. At the same time, there have been cabin crew who wanted to work but had no choice in the matter.
Amy James, the airline’s acting Head of Inflight Customer Experience admitted her department hadn’t got it right, saying the process of furloughing staff had been an “incredibly complex task”. James said crew would now be able to volunteer to continue working in order to release their colleagues who no longer feel it’s safe to work to be furloughed.
“If you do step forward, I thank you for your willingness to support us at this critical time, and I know your colleagues who’d prefer to be furloughed will thank you too,” James told staffers in an emailed note but warned potential volunteers that the airline will have to “rely on the crew who step forward.”
British Airways is currently running a limited number of scheduled flights, as well as special repatriation rescue flights on behalf of the British government and an increased number of cargo-only flights.
For the first time, the airline will mix cabin crew on different contracts and terms and conditions, telling volunteers that “flexibility” will be needed for this to succeed.
