British Airways has threatened to fire all of its pilots and re-hire some on new terms as part of its restructuring plans.
The UK’s national flag carrier came under fire from MPs last week as it was accused of “immoral” and “disgraceful” behaviour in making 12,000 redundancies and insisting remaining staff sign new contracts while taking taxpayers’ money under the government’s job retention scheme.
BA has written to pilots’ union Balpa to say it initially wants to make 1,200 redundancies, but warned that if no agreement was reached that all 4,300 would go – with individuals then offered contracts with new conditions.
Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton told the Sun he was “appalled at the cavalier attitude” of British Airways, but the airline said it was “acting now to protect as many jobs possible.”
Along with pilots, senior British Airways cabin crew reportedly face a 55 per cent pay cut with salaries slashed to £24,000.