British Airways wants to impose a pay freeze on thousands of staff which will last for the rest of their working lives, Unite has claimed.
BA plans to axe 42,000 staff and rehire 30,000 on far worse pay and conditions.
Unite says the small print means 60% of cabin crew will “not receive a future pay increase on their basic or variable pay for the remainder of their working lives.”
A BA source tonight admitted “only a small group” of higher-earning staff “may not see a pay rise for a while.”
Staff claim BA and Willie Walsh, boss at parent company IAG, are using the pandemic to excuse the “fire and rehire” plans.
Unite claims Worldwide and Euro Fleet crew face a minimum 36.5% pay cut, rising to 46% for the highest paid.
BA claim the maximum basic pay cut would be 20% and 40% of cabin crew would get a pay rise of roughly 10%.
Cabin crew and ground handling staff demonstrated outside BA-sponsored i360 Tower in Brighton yesterday.
They were joined by Huw Merriman, Tory chairman of the Commons Transport Committee, who said: “This whole thing is careering out of control for BA.”
Labour MP Peter Kyle condemned BA for “declaring war on its workers”.
One Gatwick worker with 25 years service described being in “sheer hell” since BA announced the proposals.
A husband and wife, who work for BA and now face redundancy, said their daughter had ditched plans to go to university because they cannot support her.
The man said: “It is desperate.”
