Dearest members, colleagues and friends,
It has come as a shock to us this morning to receive individual letters basically holding a gun to our heads to make an impossible decision by August 5th. We had no clue BA would take this path after collective consultation had literally just started.
GMB submitted an alternative proposal document yesterday to the company that we have been working on for weeks. The document is the basis for discussions which would see BA achieve the savings they need but in a much more humane and acceptable way. The document received a warm welcome from BA and we were due to start talking through the detail when out of the blue we have all received what amounts to ‘fire and rehire’ letters with much-reduced pay and Terms & Conditions of employment. There is also a selection process to survive.
What is particularly insidious is the statement that this is the last opportunity to take VR, which forces people to make decisions which are not necessarily right for them under duress. Voluntary Redundancy hasn’t been discussed yet with the Trade Unions. The GMB solution will also ask sacrifices from people, there is no getting away from it but in a way that is fair and equitable and most importantly reversible when the business returns, which it surely will. We are unable to share the detail at the moment due to the usual rules of consultation and also because we haven’t been through the document fully with BA.
For those of you that genuinely wish to leave the company and take the VR at this stage, we would never stand in your way. We cannot offer any guarantees that VR will be available at the end of this process, we simply don’t know. We can’t either guarantee that BA will genuinely listen to our alternative proposals and all indications are that this is a hard-hearted, uncaring company that lacks integrity and cares little for its loyal staff.
With regards to opening any consultation emails, by not doing so it could put you as an individual at a disadvantage. We recommend you read all that is being proposed by the company.
The only guarantee we can offer you today is that AS YOUR REPS WE WILL FIGHT to protect as many jobs as we possibly can and seek to keep the T&C’s we have worked so hard over the years to achieve. We are so sorry there are no definitive answers at this point but will continue to keep you updated at every turn
Your GMB Reps