British Airways has allowed a employees to become disconnected from airline’s success, say UK trade unions Unite, BALPA and GMB. They have teamed up to submit an unprecedented joint pay claim in to the airlines.
The three unions are working together to seek improvements to pay from January 2019, as well as enhanced profit-sharing arrangements and the introduction of an employee share ownership scheme. Negotiations with BA are due to commence in December.
In a joint statement, Unite national officer Oliver Richardson, BALPA head of industrial relations John Moore and GMB national officer Mick Rix said: “British Airways is continuing to deliver extraordinary financial results.
“In a remarkable transformation, the airline has moved from a £230m operating loss in 2009 to a £1.8bn profit in 2017, with an even better result forecast for 2018.
“BA staff made an essential contribution to this success by delivering change and increasing productivity.
“However, British Airways has allowed a culture to develop in which employees are disconnected from the airline’s success, a cause for concern for a world-class, customer service based airline.
“The joint union pay claim is designed to re-establish this connection between financial success and staff reward.”