British Airways to recruit extra 1,250 staff to counter strikes

British Airways (LON:BAY) has announced it will attempt to recruit an extra 1,250 new staff to counteract the summer strike action planned by current BA employees. The Unite union announced early this week that it will hold a ballot on June 29 to decided whether to launch a fresh new wave of walkouts over the loss of strikers’ travel perks. The results of the vote are due on July 27 and industrial action could be held seven days prior, landing the strike directly in the school summer holidays.

Kate Neilson
shareprices.com - Thursday, June 24, 2010

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British Airways has reacted to strike threats ahead of Iberia deal

BA’s reaction comes just 48 hours after Unite said it was going to ballot its 12,000 Heathrow cabin crew members over the strikes.

The new recruits will only get a fraction of the salaries of those plotting to strike however. The group has launched adverts this week with slogans like ‘Be outstanding, British Airways’ to target new recruits, but will only offer them £18,000 a year. That’s £8,000 shy of the wages of existing shorthaul cabin crew and £17,000 less than longhaul employees receive.

BA has made everyone aware that current staff will retain their terms, conditions and pay and the new onslaught of staff will be mixed with current crew.

The news should ease concerns of both holiday makers planning to fly with BA during the school holidays and investors who feared further losses for the British airline group due to strike action.

With the FTSE 100 broadly down today, British Airways is in decline at the rate of one per cent, shedding 2.10p to 210.30p.

The share price has grown gradually up until this week as the merger with Spanish airline Iberia gets closer to completion.

BA announced on Tuesday it had reached an agreement with its pension trustees to reduce the £3.7bn pension deficit – something that needs to be completed successfully as a clause in the deal with Iberia.

At the same time the pension deal would have encouraged investors, a Which? survey was released pinning BA as one of the worst carriers in the world.

Swiss Airlines came top of the customer poll with passengers most satisfied with the service. However, the eight-worst carriers in the survey were British, apart from Irish airline Ryanair (LON:RYA). Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) Airlines was voted the worst airline for shorthaul flights due to a lack of leg room. Jet2.com, Easyjet (LON:EZJ), BMI Baby, Monarch Airlines and TUI Travel’s (LON:TT) Thomson Airways also scored badly.

BA customers praised cabin crew, cleanliness and its approach to dealing with delays but it scored 11th out of the 18 airlines included in the research.

 

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