British Airways has told all members of the cabin crew at London Heathrow that their pay won't be cut by more than 20% in a letter to staff seen by Simple Flying. The airline is currently in a period of consultation on how to cope with the post-pandemic aviation landscape.
On April 28th, Simple Flying reported that IAG was mulling up to 12,000 job cuts at British Airways in response to the current crisis. The airline has been operating a skeleton schedule since March amid a huge downfall in passenger traffic. Since then, there has been a critical focus on the future of cabin crew jobs. This has now been confirmed in a letter seen by Simple Flying from Amy James, the airline's Head of Inflight Customer Experience.
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"A soft landing"
British Airways has three groups of cabin crew based at London Heathrow. Eurofleet and Worldwide are the two pools of employees on older contacts. As the airline looks to standardize basic pay across the airline, there were concerns that some of the airline's employees on older contacts would face massive pay cuts of up to 70%.
However, James made clear that this would not be the case in her letter to employees. She said that all employees who secure a continuing role at the airline would be guaranteed to earn at least 80% of their current pay under the new proposals. James added,
"This pay protection proposal provides a ‘soft landing’ into a new aviation industry that’s very different to what any of us have known in the past, and enables you to adjust to the changes we need to make if we are to compete effectively and be fit for a different future."
What should you know?
Simple Flying understands that there will be three salaries available to cabin crew under the new proposals, as it will establish a single pool of cabin crew. Every member of the cabin crew will be paid above the market rate. Regular members of the cabin crew would earn £28,000 ($34,769). This would rise to £31,000 ($38,495) for lead cabin crew members, and £38,000 ($47,187) for managers.
Where the above figures don't reach what existing employees are paid, British Airways will top up the value to 80% of the employee's previous pay. The current proposal would, however, see 40% of the airline's employees getting a pay increase, in addition to more annual leave.
Simple Flying understands that British Airways has been engaging with its cabin crew community regarding its future for around 60 days now. In this time, their unions have missed around 300 meetings to discuss the future with the airline.
James touched on this in her letter saying,
"Whilst Unite’s central headquarters have been running bizarre political campaigns to make our airline even smaller through the removal of take-off and landing slots; my team and I have spent the last 55 days working hard and listening to your direct feedback to develop the best possible solution to the devastation our industry is facing."
What do you think of this proposed deal for British Airways' cabin crew? Would you take it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.