orbitmic

I don't think anyone would suggest it is unachievable, but BA's explicit claim is that this is the absolute minimum anyone gets, and from what you say that simply isn't true, plus BA counts as income things which clearly shouldn't be, which is there to cover expenses whilst away from base.

Agent69

If you read the first paragraph of what was said you will see that it was a rough insight, not a forensic analysis (also think it's a bit unfair to blame BA for the fall in the value of the £).

The cost of living while away from home is clearly a significant factor in the overall assessment, and there is one thing that I don't understand. BA must spend a fortune on hotels, which would give them massive purchasing power when booking rooms. Why can't they negotiate breakfast as part of the deal? I can't believe that somebody would turn down the chance to fill 10 rooms all day every day for the cost of some scrambled eggs on toast.

orbitmic

I did not take the decline in value of the pound into account either as I agree with you that it is an entirely separate issue.

However, paradoxically, whilst Lite presumably mentions that part of the £3/hr payment is subject to taxes to mention that they do not keep all of it, to me, it is the contrary argument which matters: since HMRC does not tax all of it, then it is acknowledged that whatever part of that is not taxed is effectively not income (but expenses of sorts). It would therefore be unfair for BA to count that non-taxable part as if it were part of the crew income. Again, the parallel with regular jobs is obvious, if you earn £100,000 but also incur £20,000 of expenses on pure work travel, your income does not magically become £120,000, it is still £100,000.

And yes, rough estimates, nobody suggested that Lite was trying to present a detailed income amount, but she just mentioned what is included in BA's calculations, and also quite clearly that the £21k seemingly cannot be a minimum in current circumstances.

Flexible preferences

Thank you Lite for this information.

In addition to the £150 a month incentive scheme, is there any profit share element to MF pay? I am trying to reconcile BA's average full time pay of £24k vs your experience of £21k maximum vs Unite's position of £16k. All very confusing! Thanks

Snafu_again

BA do have purchasing power on room rates and the hotels do often offer crews good discounts on purchase of food and beverages with production of their ID. Can still be expensive considering the exorbitant prices that the major hotel chains get away with charging for a breakfast.
A side issue but don't forget that BA aren't the only airline booking rooms for their crews and those other airlines are also using their purchasing power to get lower room rates. The hotels are glad to have them when things are quiet but could sell those rooms many times over in their peak times. The logistics of dealing with airline crews can be quite challenging for the hotels as well !

Lite

The £150 a month MyIncentive payment is an absolute maximum based on your own performance as well as company performance targets. Usually it's nearer the £100 mark, even for somebody with no absence or lateness.

When the airline makes a profit, all colleagues receive an all colleague bonus. This is usually in the £400-£650 mark over the last few years for Cabin crew and is of course taxable and discretionary.

Both the all company bonus and MyIncentive bonus, as well as staff travel, has been removed for people who have taken part in the industrial action.

Tafflyer

Is this allowed in the UK? It certainly wouldn't be in the part of the EU I am based (Germany).

Flexible preferences

Thanks Lite. So my understanding is that MF earnings are made up of Basic+Flying Pay+Incentive Scheme+Profit Share+Commission on duty free and now BoB. Very complex pay structure.

florens

How far in advance will BA cancel flights if they do so?

I'm on BA753 and BA756 on 21st.

Snafu_again

I'm not sure about the All company or MyIncentive bonus but Staff Travel is non contractural and BA can withdraw that at any time and as they so wish. They used to make that clear when logging on to the Staff Travel web site.

Tafflyer

Accept the point on staff travel. If BA are including all these bonusses in their calculation of MF minimum salary, then they cannot be discretionary. It would therefore IMHO be unfair (illegal?) to remove them ad-hoc and only for striking staff. Apart from that, it's downright provocative.

Lewis King

Hopefully we'll know a bit more on Monday. I've got a potential cancellation too

Calum

My flight is pretty full on Thursday so I'm praying they don't cancel it.

Lite

Exactly. I wasn't saying that BA themselves are responsible for the plummeting exchange rates. What they are responsible for is realising that the cost of living downroute becoming significantly more expensive needs to be factored into the overall package. So whilst a 2% pay increase may sound similar to other workplaces, that is in reality the increase from £3 to £3.06 an hour on the EHR. Significantly less than the comparable EHR of the Flight Crew as well as Cabin Crew at other airlines (not all comparable as some have sector pay and destination specific allowances like Virgin.) As the cost of living has gone up dramatically in the last of 3 years, particularly in some destinations, the lack of a pay rise for those 3 years and now a 6p pay increase isn't tolerable according to the Cabin Crew.

The fact that a lot of this could be solved around x pence an hour and that the airline wants to fight this all the way as per the communications from Alex Cruz internally, I think explains the leadership and direction of the airline.

kauppias

I read a post that said ba had "enhanced" some aspects of F service during the last strike, was that only on MF routes or all flights?

Flying F on the 19th so just wondering...