It’s a pity the anonymous pilot (I don’t want to strike, but BA has left me with no choice, 10 September) wasn’t given the space to list some of the eye-watering benefits he receives. The pay system he mentions is tax-efficient, meaning that the pilots pay themselves minimum wage and the rest of the remuneration is “company profits” taxed at 20%.
He forgot to mention that senior pilots get guaranteed first-class flights for themselves and their families. Captains also get meal allowances that are 10% above those of the rest of the crew. When I joined BOAC in 1970, flight crew retired at 55, while cabin crew worked until 65.
As for safety, the cynical among us would say that provided the flight crew get off alive then so do the rest of us! A senior aircraft designer once told me that his ideal flight deck was a pilot and a dog, the pilot to feed the dog and the dog to attack the pilot if he ever touched a control. In-cabin problems are almost exclusively handled by cabin crew at a fraction of pilots’ salaries. In an emergency, the evacuation of passengers would be the remit of that same cabin crew.
Allan McRobert
Kirkcaldy, Fife
• The first-ever strike by British Airways pilots (BA flights grounded as pilots stage first-ever strike on pay, 9 September), and other long-running disputes at Ryanair and with train operators, reveal what happens when antagonism in industrial relations becomes entrenched.
Strikes always end, but the lessons are not always learned. There is a need for better education about the employment relationship, to enhance society’s understanding of the politics of work.
Workers’ rights should be taught in schools, colleges and universities, and there should be more industry and employment journalists and employment relations managers.
Prof Tony Dobbins
President, British Universities Industrial Relations Association; University of Birmingham
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