Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has declined to join MPs on the transport select committee in condemning British Airways as “a national disgrace” for cutting jobs and pay while taking government money under the coronavirus job retention scheme.
Rabb led the government coronavirus briefing today and was asked if he agreed BA is “a national disgrace” as the select committee concluded in a report published on Saturday.
Raab said: “The government has provided a lot of business support [and] we are urging companies to keep as many jobs as possible.
“We’ve done a huge amount already. We have provided direct support and loan facilities.”
He said: “From the airline point of view, the chancellor is looking at this.”
Asked what the government “plans to do if anything about the situation at British Airways”, Raab said: “Ultimately, it is for businesses to decide how they navigate through this.
“We will be doing everything we can to provide support. The chancellor and business secretary are looking at this very closely.”
BA is seeking to cut 12,000 jobs and fire and re-hire remaining staff on new contracts, in many cases on substantially reduced pay.
Conservative MP Huw Merriman, who chairs the transport select committee, said on Saturday: “The behaviour of BA and its parent company IAG falls well below the standards expected from any employer.”
“This wanton destruction of a loyal workforce cannot go without sanction by government.
“It is unacceptable that a company would seek to drive this level of change under the cover of a pandemic.”
Aviation minister Kelly Tolhurst also described BA’s actions as “a breach of faith” when she appeared before the committee this month.
Tolhurst agreed the government job retention scheme “was not funded by tax payers to support the wages of workers for these jobs to be cut”.
BA parent IAG is one of three major carriers seeking a judicial review of quarantine restrictions introduced on June 8 in a direct legal challenge to the government.
