BA and other Heathrow flights over half-term to be disrupted by Menzies Aviation strike

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• bafan says:

  2 Feb2 February 06:21

  As they should. With inflation at 5%+ no pay increase is effectively a pay cut.

  • ChrisC says:

    2 Feb2 February 06:29

    Not forgetting the 10% increase in National Insurance about to hit pay packets as well.

    • John says:

      2 Feb2 February 07:31

      You mean the 1.25% increase?

      • ChrisA says:

        2 Feb2 February 07:40

        The NI rate increase is by 1.25%, which makes it a 10% rise in the amount of money paid by individuals.

        • Lady London says:

          2 Feb2 February 14:20

          Plus the employer’s own NI also is another 1.25%

      • Charles Martel says:

        2 Feb2 February 07:42

        Employees will see their NI increase from 12% to 13.5% a 10.4% increase. Employers will see the rate they pay for those employees rise from 13.8% to 15.05% a 9% increase. Any pay rise employees may have got will likely be reduced by this increase in the employers rate as ultimately businesses have a budget for their employees and if more of it has to go in taxation less of it will go to the employee.

      • Rui N. says:

        2 Feb2 February 08:42

        There is no 1.25% increase. There’s, in total, a 2.5 percentage points increase. Quite different, as Charles Martel explains below.

      • J says:

        2 Feb2 February 08:50

        @John – By that logic, the average family’s gas bill doubling is only around a 2% increase in their gas bill (once scaled out across their full income). It’s a ~10% increase in national insurance – 1.25% is a nonsensical way to spin it.

        • Rui N. says:

          2 Feb2 February 09:15

          1.25% is not just nonsensical. It’s simply wrong. It’s 1.25 percentage points for the employee (then another 1.25 p.p. for the employer). Percentage and percentage points are not synonyms.

  • Track says:

    2 Feb2 February 06:50

    The thing tho we should not be expecting RPI-like, 5%+ increases across the board to all workers in the country.

    It is not going to happen.

    • Rob Collins says:

      2 Feb2 February 07:30

      Well the average private sector pay increase (Sept-Nov quarter) was 4.5%, so why not? I certainly would be voting to take action if I were in their position.

    • Charles Martel says:

      2 Feb2 February 08:24

      But without intending to be disparaging most of the workers in these roles are going to be relatively low paid and are less likely to have the fat in their household budget to absorb a 7% increase in their cost of living. Across the country/world these workers are going to get increasingly upset that they’re working hard and finding their life getting more and more difficult. If they don’t get pay increases I could see their protests getting more militant – decades of fantasy economic and energy policy are probably going to turn to pitchforks.

      • The real Swiss Tony says:

        2 Feb2 February 08:39

        Yep. I’ll add my +1 to that and I’m far from being a socialist. This is just common sense. Once the economy doesn’t work for a significant minority, the wheels quite literally come off. I was paying £104 a month for my gas & electric. I’ve just upped the direct debit to £200 a month, I’ll cope. But I also understand that many can’t.

      • Londonsteve says:

        2 Feb2 February 22:03

        Totally agree, Charles. I would add to your comment that my suspicion is that the refuelling staff are very likely not low paid, per se. It is a highly responsible job entailing specialist training and there are a finite number of people qualified to undertake it. Even before the present ’employee’s market’, such employees were able to leverage the power of a union to keep an employer’s inherent tendency to reduce pay and benefits in check. Now they are calling the shots and Menzies deserve everything they get; zero pay rise in a climate of 5% RPI inflation is asking for trouble. Their management have at a pen stroke engineered a major crisis and heads will roll for this, without a doubt. It’s not like a strike at a fish packing plant or a museum, this has serious ramifications for the country.

    • Rob says:

      2 Feb2 February 08:46

      My team got 10%. Time to get another job if you’re getting under 5%.

      • ChrisA says:

        2 Feb2 February 10:08

        Do you have any jobs going, Rob?!

      • Nick says:

        2 Feb2 February 11:54

        @Rob that’s all very well for professional type roles with transferable skills. It’s a different story for the very low paid, many of whom can’t afford to switch roles even if their skills are transferable. There have been a lot of good articles recently about how huge swathes of people are effectively tied to their current employer.

        Even if half of the refuellers (for example) did hand in their notice and become truckers, what would happen? Inflation will kick in even sooner if Menzies had to pay new people more to attract them. And we can expect the same disruption for a while as security clearance for airside passes is very slow to acquire.

        • Lady London says:

          2 Feb2 February 14:22

          Serves Menzies right then.

      • BP says:

        2 Feb2 February 15:48

        My financial sector employer is giving 4% for most roles and 3% for senior roles. Less if your performance wasn’t “good”.

    • ken says:

      2 Feb2 February 10:34

      Public sector – probably not.

      Private sector – most food retails (Tesco etc) already settled on 6%
      Transport sector much higher than that.
      Vacancies everywhere in low paid sectors.

      FWIW, I think the inflation genie is well and truly out the bottle.

• Track says:

  2 Feb2 February 06:48

  The question is why Menzies employees agreed to be fired and rehired at lower salaries/worse contracts.

  They should stood ground and go through the tribunal in case of unfair dismissal (without a cause specific to that person).

  It was a task for the business leaders/C-suite to find financing, use one of the most generous furlough schemes.

• Jon says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:15

  Some seriously dodgy employer behaviour described there. Speaking selfishly I’m just crossing my fingers Ethiopian is largely unaffected

• David Passmore says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:37

  Unite should focus on fighting the ‘fire and rehire’ tactic that so many employers lawfully deploy.

  • CarpalTravel says:

    2 Feb2 February 10:09

    Totally agree. I am deeply suspicious of unions, at least their leaders. They seem less about protecting their members these days and more about elevating their position and lining their own pockets. See the likes of Lord Woodley for details.

    Back in the day I knew people who were regularly in meetings with him; in public he was all fire and brimstone but behind closed doors it was a transformation, buddying up with board members, never missing out on a free meal etc..

    • Lady London says:

      2 Feb2 February 14:28

      One of my gigs was minute-taking for union-employer meetings at a newspaper well known for acrimonious union relations.

      It was just as cosy as you’ve said and the meeting seemed almost choreographed just to get the minutes into the record that the dance of ’employer said this’ so ‘union said this’ was being followed.

      Everything else was clearly a good relationship on a regular basis and all decisions were clearly being made outside of the official meetings. Not unusual in any field, really.

    • Ken says:

      2 Feb2 February 21:06

      One of (the many) difficulties unions have faced in the last 20 years is how do you get members to strike asking for 3.5% pay when the offer is 2.5%.
      Strike for 3 days and it will take more than a year for that extra 1% to recover the lost pay.

      It could be a world of difference with inflation at 7% and much higher in energy and food, vacancies everywhere. Offered 5% ? Might as well try for 10%

      If individual’s worry about how their own pay demands effects general inflation then they are idiots.

• AJA says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:39

  I sympathise with the employees however it is obvious this is timed to cause maximum disruption. I’m not a fan of strikes in general as i feel they don’t really work.

  I hope Menzies and Unite resolve this without disrupting passengers. A strike is the last thing we need with all that’s gone on over the last two years.

  A question for HR specialists out there if Menzies fired and rehired does length of service prior to firing count or are these staff now considered new and need two years service from date of rehire for full employment protection e.g. statutory redundancy protection /unfair dismissal etc

  • Lady London says:

    2 Feb2 February 14:30

    Hey AJA au contraire this is the correct timing as it’s one of the few times the employees have actually got any leverage.

    Now’s the time to go for it.

    • Londonsteve says:

      2 Feb2 February 22:08

      Entirely agree, Lady London. Passenger discomfort is collateral damage, this is their leverage. Good that they have this because many employees don’t and strikes have little effect.

• jj says:

  2 Feb2 February 07:56

  Does anyone knoelw if the list of affected airlines is complete or just examples? I’m travelling with Virgin that weekend and have a connecting flight in the USA so delays could be challenging.

  • Rhys says:

    2 Feb2 February 09:30

    The list is from the Unite press release of Menzies clients.

• Tom says:

  2 Feb2 February 08:08

  Absolute solidarity with the strikers. Fire and rehire is a scandal.

• John T says:

  2 Feb2 February 08:37

  Meh, these strikes are always called off at the last minute. I can’t remember the last time they actually caused major travel disruption.

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