Anyone with a sense of humour? No Lay-off issue 54 (c)

[DocAV8R]

British Airways Trains Pilots to Be Flight Attendants (Update3)
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By Steven Rothwell and Glen Carey

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- British Airways Plc will today begin training pilots, baggage handlers and engineers to take over the duties of flight attendants as its 12,000 cabin crew commence voting on a walkout over staffing reductions.

British Airways has registered volunteers for a three-week course in serving meals, selling duty-free goods and taking charge of passenger safety for the duration of a strike that could cost 20 million pounds ($32 million) a day in lost sales.

“This should allow them to operate some flights, but whether they can maintain anything like a full service is another matter,” said Douglas McNeill, an analyst at Astaire Securities in London with a “buy” rating on BA stock. “The question is not how many interim staff they can attract, but how many experienced staff there’ll be to lead them.”

The strike ballot, organized by the Unite union, runs until Feb. 25 and a walkout can begin one week after a “yes” vote. British Airways Chairman Martin Broughton pledged today to maintain “a reasonable schedule” using volunteer stewards, and the Balpa pilot union says it won’t seek to stop members deputizing as cabin crew after being “stunned” by an earlier attempt to halt flying for 12 days over the Christmas holiday.

The GMB, which represents about 7,000 BA check-in staff and baggage handlers, has e-mailed members at the carrier asking them not to respond to the request for emergency cover, Mick Rix, a leader in the section of the union representing commercial-services workers, said in a Jan. 22 interview.

Walsh Plea

BA Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh wrote to about 25,000 non-cabin crew employees on Jan. 18 asking them to help keep aircraft flying through a strike with a simplified service. The London-based company won’t reveal how many people have come forward, and the process is still open. Unite says 216 staff have volunteered, without specifying how it got the information.

Europe’s No. 3 carrier needs to cut costs as it heads toward a loss in the 12 months ending March 31 that’s likely to exceed that of fiscal 2009, when it had a record 375 million- pound net deficit, Broughton said in an interview. Analysts expect a 450 million-pound loss, based on nine estimates.

Planes will be able to operate in a strike with smaller crews, said the chairman, who spoke while attending the Global Competitive Forum conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Domestic flights will probably be suspended and long-haul routes such as New York will continue with reduced frequencies. Many of the carrier’s pilots are already security-trained, so that the further instruction required would be minimal, he said.

Hiring Planes

BA spokesman Paul Marston said the company, whose stock fell 0.1 percent to 207.6 pence today, paring gains this year to 11 percent, “will explore all options” for maintaining schedules, including hiring in planes and crews for some routes.

Formal negotiations between Unite and British Airways ended in stalemate on Jan. 15. While there is still a “continuous dialogue,” contacts have stopped short of full talks and are being maintained through “working parties,” union spokeswoman Pauline Doyle said in an interview on Jan. 22.

Unite is seeking a strike mandate over BA’s introduction of new working practices in November that cut at least one flight attendant on long-haul flights from London Heathrow airport.

Cabin crew who walk out will lose benefits including a 90 percent discount on tickets for themselves and a friend or relative, British Airways spokesman Philip Allport said today in a telephone interview, adding that the standard of hotel provided on overnight working trips will also be reviewed.

‘Lost Business’

“The threat of disruption last time round cost us millions in lost business, and if there is a strike we will incur further costs which we’ll have to take action to recover,” he said.

Len McCluskey, Unite’s assistant general secretary, said the savings plan is the result of “machismo management” by CEO Walsh, who he accused of “trying to grind skilled and professional employees into the dirt.”

Broughton said Unite has sought to personalize the dispute through its focus on Walsh, stoking “fear about the future” in employees who would otherwise accept the terms on offer.

The Christmas walkout would have disrupted travel for 1 million people and was averted after U.K. judge Laura Cox declared an earlier strike ballot invalid because it included workers who had agreed to leave the airline. Unite said Jan. 20 it would refrain from striking over the Easter holiday in early April, allowing passengers to “plan their travel arrangements in confidence.”

The Balpa union said in an e-mail on Jan. 22 that the majority of members have “a very different analysis” of the situation at British Airways to that of Unite, though it isn’t actively encouraging pilots to break the strike.

Safety Requirements

Safety training for cabin crew at U.K. carriers is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority and requires competence in areas including operation of fire extinguishers and procedures for evacuating aircraft using inflatable slides.

“The safety of our customers and staff is always our overriding priority and we would never do anything to compromise that,” BA spokesman Marston said.

The CAA also stipulates that airlines must have a hierarchy of crew on each plane, led by an experienced member, and must carry one flight attendant for every 50 seats, whether they’re occupied or not, or one for each exit, whichever is higher. For a Boeing Co. 747-400 in a typical configuration that means 12 people, compared with the 14 British Airways currently provides.

“Safety standards are our only concern,” Richard Taylor, a London-based spokesman for the regulator, said in an interview. “Service standards, food and drink, that’s up to them and they are probably going to make it a lower priority.”

[loopa]

Sorry, I just have to LAUGH at this one