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British Airways agrees pay deal with Unite for 24000 staff, reverses ‘fire and rehire’ pay cuts

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Whilst nothing has been publicly announced by British Airways, union Unite has announced that it has negotiated a substantial new pay deal for around 24,000 BA staff.

The deal reportedly includes a guarantee that anyone who was subject to ‘fire and rehire’ during the pandemic will have their pay restored to its 2020 level before the new increase is applied.

The terms of the deal are:

British Airways agrees a pay deal with Unite
  • a pay increase worth 13.1% over 18 months, plus
  • a one-off payment of £1,000, plus
  • a mechanism to re-open the deal if inflation remains higher than currently expected, plus
  • additional increases for ‘specific groups of workers’

The deal has been accepted by employees following a ballot.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:

“This is a sizable pay increase which has been achieved by the hard work and dedication of the union’s reps and officers, hammered out in detailed negotiations.

“The fact that Unite has reversed the fire and rehire cuts while also securing a large increase in pay, underlines how the union’s relentless focus on the jobs, pay and conditions of members, is delivering for workers financially.”

Further details are on the Unite website here.


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Comments (63)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Charles Martel says:

    Great news, hopefully it will help BA retain the staff it desperately seems to need.

    • Suse says:

      Pay increase is to be funded from profits of BA or an increase in fares that would paid by skinned customers?

  • bafan says:

    Great news! CC pay is absolutely dire. They have coasted by on the prestige of the job for far too long.

  • Gordon says:

    Saw on news app yesterday. Pilots and management are excluded! But it is good news for the rest of staff, I wonder if this will improve the J cabin experience now. I fear there maybe cabin crew galley chatter regarding this for a while! So those sensitive to this, don your noise cancelling headphones….

    • Rhys says:

      Of course pilots and management are excluded…pilots have their own union!

      • Gordon says:

        Of course they do.

      • Bob says:

        Funnily enough, recently, there has been some discussion amongst some BA pilots about joining Unite, as they are not happy with BALPA.

      • Rich says:

        And their own multi year deal I thought? Although they’re not happy with it?

        • Nick says:

          Pilots signed a binding deal valid until 24, and balpa is so shambolically organised that meaningful preparations for a follow-on deal are basically impossible.

          And the real problem is that pilots don’t have any leverage – put simply, not enough of them leave. The impetus for other staff was engineering, where LAEs are in huge demand (UA has recently acquired a maintenance hangar at LHR and enticed a lot of 777/787 licenced engineers across with higher pay) – it was such a fundamental problem that BA had to act generously and fast. If pilots left to other airlines in any numbers the same would apply.

  • Simonbr says:

    Most public sector workers can only dream of 13%, but yes it is great for BA staff.

    • Andrew. says:

      But then, most public sector staff don’t have to fight their colleagues for their increment each year.

      The whining I’m hearing at work over a simple annual appraisal. They honestly have no idea that in the real world (or my previous life) appraisals can be a continuous process and ongoing evidence recording is essential. Or that if the paypot is 5%, if I get 6% they’ll only get 4%.

    • Nick says:

      Most private sector workers can only dream of having a defined benefit, salary based, inflation-linked for life pension, which this year gave public sector workers an over 10% increase in pensions, and a nearly 12% increase in career average revaluation. Defined benefit pensions have essentially been unheard of for new starters in the private sector for over two decades now.

      • Myriad says:

        The likelihood of me living to see this mythical “defined benefit” pension is pretty low, it’s effectively worthless to me.

      • David says:

        Yes, it’s terrible what Thatcherism did.to the private sector and what they’ve been allowed to get away with for decades: a nasty and pernicious race to the bottom.

        Hope you’re organising for a Union in your workplace. Just look at what can be achieved.

        • Dev says:

          High wage society … don’t make me laugh! The UK is terrible! It may be home and I’ll be back but I’m so happy I left 4 years ago. The mundane rat race to the bottom is depressing (along with the general hatred by the masses and Labour Party against those who accumulate wealth).

          • Chrisasaurus says:

            I think a better word than accumulate could perhaps be hoard

      • Lady London says:

        And those in the private sector many of whom never even had the amazing defined benefit pensions at any time, are still paying for public sector defined benefits private sector employers stopped funding because they were unaffordable.

        Go figure.

        • David says:

          Another rabbit hole argument that entirely misses the point. Enjoy your race to the bottom (no doubt well insulated in your own personal financial circumstances).

          • Pb says:

            The trouble is that Unions were largely responsible for exporting jobs overseas as companies and populous got fed up with endless strikes .

        • Simonbr says:

          Private sector take their above inflation pay rises and bonuses, they overestimate public sector pensions (that Osborne devalued by fiddling with) , complain about public sector services while public sector workers become disenchanted and leave. Why would a nurse stay in the miserable NHS with 6% when he /she could earn 14% going to work for BA? Go figure.

  • Ryan says:

    Power to the workers!

  • Chris W says:

    Does this mean some cabin crew can go back to only doing one or two trips a month and won’t even need to live in the UK?

    And that there may be staff crewing the same flight on very different pay scales?

    • Rich says:

      There’s a big difference between rates of pay and other contract terms. The overall package remains very different to the past and inferior from the employee’s perspective.

  • Thegasman says:

    Shows how shortsighted their Covid actions were, albeit most industries/governments would probably do things differently with hindsight.

    No point reversing pay cuts if the experienced staff you so desperately need have long since departed.

    • Rich says:

      Management achieved what they intended and will be glad to only have to reverse the basic pay reductions. They’re still saving significant sums on the other changes made and these will stick.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      I don’t know the exact ins and outs but the saying Short term pain long term gain comes to mind.

  • PETER REES says:

    Undoubtedly a good result for BA staff. Let’s be clear about Unite leadership. The Union has 1.4m members. Only 12% of the membership voted in the election for the top job. Of those, only 38% voted for Sharon Graham, approximately 64,000 members, some 1.3m + did not vote.

    • David says:

      And? What’s your point?
      How many people don’t vote in a General Election, or didn’t in the EU referendum?
      Where does your implied logic take us there?

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

      So?

      Elections are decided by those that vote. A low turnout does not invalidate an election.

      There isn’t a threshold in this sort of ballot (unlike for strikes / industrial action)

    • George W says:

      You – presumably – are in Unite,and it sounds like you voted against her. Correct?

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