Can I help you

BA only want crew on one type of contact and that is the MF contract.

PETER01

I understand the economic argument but that's no consolation to the BA crews abroad, the real impact it will have in their lives and I hope they at least find alternative employment.

When BA are making very healthy profits there's really no need to treat employees this way. Sadly we live in a time of greed, cutbacks and people with short term views/thinking about their own careers and bonuses etc. Not just BA but everywhere and it's the same elsewhere and also in the public sector too. That's my opinion anyhow.

BrianWBrazil

I would stab at a guess that the issue lies in the fact that these crew serve a route that is one flight per day and can't be easily transferred to other operational areas if the needs of the business demand, but I really don't know enough about the business.

Can I help you

They would have been offered a MF contact but only if they had a European passport.

switch007

I'm ignorant of the MF contract ... but let me take a guess: lower wages, more hours, fewer rights, fewer benefits, less job security, a tone of "you belong to us"??

Ldnn1

I would hope that this would be offered to some. Many of the staff will have Portuguese or Italian passports so would be eligible to work in the UK.. at least for now!

I can't imagine BA would be interested in sponsoring Brazilian nationals for UK visas.

IAMORGAN

It's about time somebody enhanced the management team at BA.

Can I help you

Unfortunately most do not have access to a European passport, the majority of the Brazilian crew have over 20 years service and have families and would be unable to move to the UK, do BA care, well I will let you guess?

Takiteasy

You have very few of them today. At constant number of crew worldwide, those jobs lost in Brazil would be Portuguese speakers hired in London.

Is the absence of language-based rostering a contractual one? What stops your management from saying 'hey Can I help you, we have hired some quality crew from TAP, will retrain them in the art of creaming scones, and will roster them to LIS and GIG from now on'?

Maybe a moot point though if as BrianWBrazil states, the locals will happily have a British crew if they can pay a few Reals less...

Can I help you

None of us are hired for our laungage capabilities and have access to all trips on our fleet.

Calum

Such a shame, I think all non-uk based crew know they are on death row.

The cost saving is minimal but the effect on a small number on crew members is huge. So pretty much the same thing that just happened in the U.S. military.

ds2016

This pretty much sums it up.. The people at the top are being asked to deliver increasing profits and as the market is saturated, the only way to increase profits short term is by cutting costs. People like AC/WW don't care about the long term anymore..Its all about short term gains, and it helps their bonuses as well. Once they have gutted a company enough, they will simply move on to another easily as they will have a proven track record of success, i.e. delivering profits which is all what matters to the majority of shareholders.

LordBuckethead

Actually this did change when MF came in, they did recruit Portuguese and Japanese speakers (for GIG and HND respectively) and developed the capability to roster based on this - they tried to get two per flight IIRC.

It didn't work though. Rostering stopped being effective after a while, they didn't get enough recruits and too many of this they had left (language speakers can earn more outside MF), and the proportions weren't right. Yet another good idea in theory poorly executed by BA and quietly abandoned. Of course in HND's case it became much more expensive for them eventually having to switch to WW, but there you go.

This is a huge shame. ICC are worth their weight in gold, and (apart from the general WW/MF differential) I don't see how they could be seen so cost-ineffective. It's not as if there's a huge admin cost, just a few positioning flights for SEP and a couple of base managers. They will be missed.

IAN-UK

It really doesn't work like that.



Well, it could be made to work, but it would be wildly inefficient.

Takiteasy

What makes you say that?