UK government scolds BA for its approach to job cuts

The UK government has warned airlines to act with “social responsibility” as MPs and unions hit out at BA’s move to cut jobs and change terms and conditions while workers are on furlough. In response to an urgent parliamentary question on Wednesday, aviation minister Kelly Tolhurst said she regretted the “distressing” news of redundancies by BA, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet, potentially amounting to more than 19,000 job cuts. “These are commercial decisions and they are decisions which I regret, particularly those companies benefiting from the job retention scheme” she said. “The scheme was not designed for taxpayers to fund the wages of employees only for those companies to put the same staff on notice of redundancy during the furlough period.” The minister was responding to a question by transport committee head Huw Merriman, who accused BA of “effectively sacking” its 42,000-strong workforce and “replacing it with 30,000 jobs on inferior terms”. The fresh scrutiny of BA follows an April announcement that the carrier could cut up to 12,000 jobs and change employee terms and conditions, weeks after agreeing a deal with unions to furlough more than 30,000 staff. Unite, whose members include BA workers, said the move was “deplorable”, while Mr Merriman accused the company of using the coronavirus pandemic as a “justification to slash jobs and employment terms”.<br/>