July 10, (THEWILL) – The management of British Airways (BA), has succeeded in beating a hasty retreat and in the interim, averted an imminent gruesome experience for the airline and especially holiday makers, who have been inundated with an unprecedented number of flight cancellations, second only to the total grounding induced by COVID-19 and Omicron.
BA’s check-in workers, ostensibly the frontline staff, who more than often absorb the tirades from passengers, had since June agreed in principle to opt for industrial action, if the 10% wage cut during the height of the pandemic is not reversed.
The Management, as usual, attempted a grandstanding and schemed up ways to expunge reference to the wage cut, which was quickly executed in 2020 with a threat of mass sack if workers refused to cooperate, during the pandemic.
However, the grim impact of the spate of thousands of flight cancellations occasioned by a shortage of staff could still not be fathomed. In consideration of the consequences, should the workers make good their threat to embark on strike, which will exacerbate the worsening and shameful situation in airports across Europe, especially in the UK, BA soft-pedalled.
Albeit, as the week was about to run out, the British Airways check-in staff at the Heathrow airport announced the suspension of the much-touted strike, after BA management made an improved pay offer, the union said.
A BA statement said: “We are very pleased that, following collaboration with the union, they have decided not to issue dates for industrial action. This is great news for our customers and our people.”
The union scribe, Unite General Secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “We welcome that BA has finally listened to the voice of its check-in staff. Unite has repeatedly warned that pay disputes at BA were inevitable unless the company take our members’ legitimate grievances seriously. I pay tribute to, and stand with, our members who have fought hard to protect their pay.”
By this mutual agreement, the agonising experience of summer holiday-makers has no doubt been mitigated in the light of over a hundred thousand flights already cancelled at Heathrow and Gatwick airports for the month of July by BA.
Nadine Houghton, GMB national officer, said: “All our members were asking for was what they were owed. British Airways finally moving on pay is long overdue.”
Houghton affirmed that, “it is very clear that workers organising and threatening industrial action is what has delivered.”
Nadine Houghton further said, “all our members – who are predominantly low-paid women – wanted was to be given back the pay cuts BA imposed on them during the pandemic.”
With the current agreement, the already appalling condition of passenger facilitation will likely not be worsened, but begin to experience an improvement no matter how marginal, this will be a march in the right direction.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
