choosethedrew

The fundamental problem is that BA CC jobs have always been massively oversubscribed, unlike on the train. If BA paid £0 they would still have queues of people applying to be CC.

Keiran Newberry

They don't. Some might get there with overtime, but there are no Customer Host/CSA roles that pay £35k basic.

Most guards are somewhere near that and they're considered senior

Also, almost every railway job is also over subscribed but the pay is still very good. So that is no excuse for what BA is doing. It's down to poor unions

BOH

I don't believe that figure is right at all. Base salary is around £18k and I think with allowances and commission this can be boosted to around £26k

A P Yu

sadly customer voice scores don’t count for much these days and the mixed fleet model proves the no CSL model works for the BA of today and it’s customers. Diluting the product is a key management competency at that company.

Silver Fox

By the same token, I suspect that the CEO job would be heavily oversubscribed so does that mean they can pay less money? I actually suspect the answer is yes, but we know it will never happen.

13901

The back-of-the-envelope calculations I was doing yesterday whilst on a jog put a saving of 4-6% of non-fuel costs. That could improve BA's ROIC from 15-16% to scratching 20%, which is where Aer Lingus is.

It's clear to see why Alex and IAG are so giddy with excitement with this. Morals, basic decency be damnded. Their stock is going to fly!

dodgeflyer

I cannot wait for the day ESG becomes a proper valuation metric, and basic standard of living becomes a significant weight.

Whilst I am economically to the right, I do believe in a just society where the there's a balance between labour and capital, and IAG is truly one of the leaders in the UK (alongside supermarkets) to contribute to social dumping. Quite frankly, given I have a choice between three airlines on my most flown route, BA will be my last choice going forward.

choosethedrew

Would it be heavily oversubscribed by candidates with the skills and experience to actually do the job though? Please understand that I'm not saying it is right what BA is doing.

Keiran Newberry

Railway jobs are - and they're hardly jobs with poor pay and conditions....

Keiran Newberry

Basic is more likely to be around the £26k mark

I2sky

For the train company I drive for (we used to be owned by a bearded millionaire) the catering staff are paid very well, around the 30k mark but with overtime it’s easy for them to make much more. Service managers on the train who I guess are the equivalent to a CSD or CSM are on 40k mon to fri only, no weekend work. There are lots of ex CC onboard and the company ran a targeted recruitment drive for ex Thomas Cook crew after that airline collapsed. My thoughts are with BA staff, those now looking for alternative employment it certainly wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out on our website, we recruit onboard on a regular basis.

Keiran Newberry

And now you're owned by us. So, you know, maybe Beardy wasn't so bad after all

BOH

There was an advert recently (3-4 months ago) for South Western Railway for on-board catering staff which talked about OTE of £26k. I guess it varies between operating companies but SWR is not really long distance as the extremities are Weymouth / Exeter but from experience it is rare there is any catering west of either Bournemouth or Salisbury, or after about 6pm out of Waterloo and when there is it is very sporadic. At the weekends a catering trolley is incredibly random and in my experience a real rarity and only between Southampton and London too, never west of this on Saturday or Sunday.

So wonder if this £26k is the lower end because it does not involve long shifts and no evening or weekend work?

Keiran Newberry

Ours start on 28-30k now - with recent restructuring to bring Sundays inside the working week. Most in-house hosts don't get comission on their sales and any OTE is likely to simply reflect the more realistic salary when rostered Sundays are worked. Sundays are still outside the working week for a lot of frontline roles on the railway. That's a discussion for a completely different forum...

Bohinjska Bistrica

There's little point in comparing salaries with the railways. BA is wholly privatised and the railways operate in an entirely different way. Although run privately, they are operated on a fixed-term franchise that involves paymenttto the government and a lot of the fares are set by the government not the operator.

I do however agree that they have an effective union, although this is no doubt helped by a lot of people in the UK depending on the train to get to work and therefore they get very angry when the trains are off. Very few people depend on BA for their commute, and usage is also well below that of the railway.

The concept of low cost also does not exist on the railways, and there is very often no competition at all.