BA Cabin Crew Set to Strike Over Time Off for Coughs and Sneezes

By DICK MURRAY

BRITISH AIRWAYS faces the threat of being grounded in a row over whether cabin crew can fly if they are suffering from coughs, colds and even ingrown toenails.

Union leaders say BA is using “bullying, intimidation and macho management” to force cabin crew to fly when ill.

The Transport General Workers union has ordered three strikes – each of three days – among cabin crew.

The first will begin next Monday. Further stoppages are scheduled for 5 February to 7 February and 12 February to 14 February.

Hundreds of thousands of travellers will be forced to abandon their plans as thousands of flights are cancelled.

A three-week shutdown would cost the carrier up to Pounds 500million. Some

industry experts put the potential financial losses much higher.

BA admits privately that if the strikes go-ahead 90 per cent of flights could be cancelled. It will also cause a knock-on disruption to other airlines using Heathrow.

Crisis talks are taking place today in a desperate attempt to avert the strikes. The case could now move to Acas, the conciliation service.

The threatened industrial action, which is part of a long- running row over the pay and conditions of 11,000 cabin crew members, has been dubbed the “great ingrown toenail strike”. The ailment is one of 12 conditionsthe union says should excuse its members from flying without counting as sick leave.

Others it lists include colds, blocked ears, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis, herpes and voice loss.

Flight managers decide whether cabin crew should fly. But allowing staff time off without it counting towards official sick leave has always been discretionary.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh said today the TG union had agreed to new sicknessprocedures in October 2005 and cabin crew had then received Pounds 1,000 each as a result. At that time cabin crew on average took 22 days of sick leave a year – that has now come down to 12 but it is still nearly double the sevenday national average. Mr Walsh now says there must be a further reduction but denied he was “imposing” changes to working conditions, as has been claimed by the union.

Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the TG, said there was an ” atmosphere” where cabin crew who are sick “fear the consequences if they don’t report for duty”.

The dispute stems from a series of measures Mr Walsh wants to introduce to make savings of Pounds 450 million by March 2008 when the airline is due to move to Heathrow’s new fifth terminal now under construction.

EDITORIAL COMMENT:

Airline dogged by ‘Spanish practices’ BA has a reputation throughout the aviation industry for tolerating Seventiesstyle “Spanish practices” that have long disappeared from other airlines.

Some of the more bizarre employment practices include: . A rule that landing planes had to be met by two buses, one each for cockpit crew and cabin crew.

The rule was changed in 2003.

. A demarcation practice that meant only GMB members could put the chocks under the wheels of an inbound plane.

. Cabin crew flying to medium-haul destinations such as Cairo, a five-hour trip, would stay overnight and return the next day. On most other airlines crew would be expected to work both trips in one day.

. Pilots said replacing the cockpit cheeseboard with plastic- wrapped Stilton was a degradation of working conditions.

Complaints list Blocked ears Diarrhoea and vomiting Visual injuries Conjunctivitis Herpes Cold sores Ingrowing toenails Loss of voice Colds One-off life events (loss of life of partner or parent) Downroute sickness (if they fall ill while working abroad) Operations

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