BlueThroughCrimp

Absolutely!

In my last industrial action ballot, the Daily Hate was given figures by my management, and quoted a top salary of one member of staff, which was supposed to show we were all vastly overpaid.

Of course these figures were nothing like accurate, and they refused a FoI request for the real information.

All I see is exactly the same management school in action at BA.
And it's disgusting.

Good luck MF

Can I help you

The hourly rate that MF get is instead of meal allowances and should be used to pay for meals when away on trips, I know that I spend my meal allowances on food as should MF crew.
Adding the hourly rate to the basic pay to make it sound like they earn more is just wrong.

UKtravelbear

FOI law dies not apply to private companies.

hemschmall

This is a relatively minor strike that will have a minimal impact on operations, at least from a customer perspective. However, the strikers have (IMO) a valid reason to do so. The purpose of striking now is to force BA's hand to offer a better deal, something of which has been elusive for nearly a year now. This is no 09/10 strike, nor is it an RMT strike - ulterior motives are nowhere to be seen. (I'm not so clued up on the Post Office one) If the current attitude prevails, I fully expect that this will come back to hurt the company in the end.

With an eye on what is going on behind the scenes at HQ, certain members of management should be ashamed. My loyalty to the job has been tested so many times over the recent years. It's now becoming really quite hard to keep one's mouth shut.

Littlegirl

BA have just sent out redundancy notices to 140 staff in Germany this week, just before Christmas.
So I guess it is OK to ruin the Christmas of their own loyal staff, just seems rather heartless to do this so close to Christmas.

Can I help you

Well said Littlegirl, say it as it is.

Anonba

Can i ask where these 140 staff are...airport or contact centre? Also do you have a link for this?

Flexible preferences

If this is true (and I have no reason to believe it isn't), it does seem the most insensitive timing.

Washington DC

Airport staff at German airports. Strange that BA are so upset at their crew 'ruining Christmas' when they're doing far worse to these German staff.

Littlegirl

All the German ground staff at the varrious airports in Germany are being outsourced.

I don't have a link as I was personally told by one of the said staff. I imagine if you can type in German you could get a link via Google, I doubt it has been picked up by the English speaking press.

I only mention it because it seems rather ironic to be doing this at the same time as saying your own cabin crew are heartless.

BlueThroughCrimp

I know.
It was refused under privacy grounds, after the press were informed of what the highest salary was.

PrimaVista

I have every sympathy with the guys on mixed fleet contracts.

However, I can't help but feel this is half-hearted grandstanding and I find myself asking why? Why time the vote to enable striking over quieter days, causing the least disruption to the company?

Surely more effect would have been achieved by taking maximum advantage by going out between Christmas and New Year, or on January 2nd and 3rd when people are returning home for the re-commencemt of work after the Christmas break?

Is it to lessen the financial loss on those who are going to strike as they will most likely be off anyway?

I reaffirm, I am 100% behind the pursuance of better terms and reward for those on Mixed Fleet, but I can't see what is going to be gained by what I see as this symbolic action.

Johnnieboy

Just doing a quick calculation based on BA's figures, if someone is on the quoted £12k starting salary, to then reach total "earnings" of £21k by topping up with the £3.00 per flying hour, they would need to paid for 3,000 such hours across the year, c.60 hours a week. Is that realistic?

Simon Schus

From the above, am I right in thinking that BA treat the £3.00 per hour as covering meals whilst their MF staff travel away from their home base? If so.... is this £3.00 per hour treated as tax-free? (as in treated as a per diem expense according to HMRC's guidelines). If that is the scenario, I honestly can't see any justification for why BA would calculate £3.00 as part of a £21k salary in a job advert. Indeed, I know some accountants would never term that £3.00 per house as 'income' but instead as a 'reimbursement' of reasonably expected expenses incurred from working away from base location (I recognise that nobody here is terming that £3.00 an hour to be 'income'). Personally, I think that reimbursement of expenses is significantly different to salaried income... to me, £12k annual salary + per-diem based reimbursement of expenses seems like a terrible deal for cabin crew whilst a great deal for BA management. I wonder if, excluding the £3.00 per hour, how the 12k compares to the national minimum wage or national living wage- I honestly don't know the weekly hours of cabin crew so can't comment on that, or even if my interpretation is valid.

I won't pretend to know much about the scenario or compensation arrangements for cabin crew, so I'm just offering some thoughts and see where the conversation leads (if anywhere). I hope that this doesn't anger anybody, and I'm intending to be constructive and add to the conversation. Please do tell me if my interpretation is incorrect, and I apologise if it is. If it is unhelpful, please do ask a moderator to delete the post (or I can edit/delete it myself). I am aware we are talking about individual livelihoods.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnnieboy

Just doing a quick calculation based on BA's figures, if someone is on the quoted £12k starting salary, to then reach total "earnings" of £21k by topping up with the £3.00 per flying hour, they would need to paid for 3,000 such hours across the year, c.60 hours a week. Is that realistic?

That seems to be the maths, yes. It'd be 60 hours of 'duty time' which includes report in at LHR, flying time, time at destination, flying time, report out. Doesn't translate very well to try and compare to a 9-5 job, as the low hourly rate covers required rest time too. It isn't only for actual flying hours.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon Schus

From the above, am I right in thinking that BA treat the £3.00 per hour as covering meals whilst their MF staff travel away from their home base?

Yes, but not sure how it is taxed.