BA hails ‘significant progress’ with unions over restructuring

BA has hailed “significant progress” in negotiations with unions over its contentious plan to restructure its business as the airline battles to survive the crisis engulfing the aviation industry. In a letter to staff on Tuesday, CE Alex Cruz said the carrier had signed an agreement in principle with unions over the future of parts of its workforce, following the sharp drop in flights this year because of the coronavirus pandemic and resulting restrictions on international travel. The deal does not apply to cabin crew but covers engineers and staff at Heathrow who work in roles such as check-in and ticketing, and extends to staffing levels and changes to working practices such as the introduction of more flexible shift patterns. Customer-facing ground staff at Heathrow will now not face compulsory redundancy, although engineers could still suffer forced job losses. “I am pleased to report we have made significant progress,” Cruz wrote in the letter. Cruz said the deal would “save jobs and mitigate the impact of redundancies”.<br/>