Andrew Burns & Alice Carse report on collective agreements in employment contracts
In 2009 British Airways (BA) was facing serious financial difficulties as a result of the collapse in premium business travel and the rise in fuel prices. BA started to negotiate cost savings with all sections of its workforce and needed to make saving from cabin crew costs of £140 million. In February 2009 negotiations began with UNITE the Union.
Two rival sections within the union, BASSA and Cabin Crew 89, were separately represented at the talks. BA proposed a reduction in crew complement (the manning levels on each particular flight) as a cost-saving scheme to enable cabin crew members to take voluntary redundancy or become part-time workers. Counter proposals put forward by UNITE were not acceptable to BA and negotiations did not make progress. Unfortunately there was a serious disagreement between BASSA and Cabin Crew 89 and talks stagnated and then collapsed when BASSA and Cabin Crew 89 refused to negotiate together at ACAS.
After these months of unsuccessful negotiations (although having achieved some success with other employee
