Unite, the UK and Ireland’s largest union, which represents thousands of workers employed by British Airways, has today (Thursday 2 April) reached agreement with the company about how workers will be protected during the coronavirus crisis.
The key parts of the deal are as follows:
- British Airways will introduce a modified version of the government’s job retention scheme, so that workers will be furloughed on 80 per cent of pay. However, unlike the government scheme, there will be no cap on earnings.
- Workers will be able to divert their pension contributions into their pay for a short period of time (contributions are between 9-18 per cent of earnings).
- There will be no unpaid temporary lay offs.
- There will be no redundancies during this period and the redundancy process that had already begun has been halted.
Unite national officer for aviation Oliver Richardson said: “Given the incredibly difficult circumstances that the entire aviation sector is facing this is as good a deal as possible for our members.
“The deal protects the jobs of BA staff and, as far as possible, also protects their pay.
“This is what can and should be done to protect workers during this unprecedented time for the airline sector.”
The deal will now be circulated to Unite’s members at British Airways for their final approval.