British Airways, which has announced it wants to slash 12,000 jobs and offered cabin crew pay cuts, has reached an agreement with its pilots that will see 350 people given the pink slip and another 300 placed in a queue for rehire as needed, The Sun reported on Sunday.
Captains and first officers included in the pool already do not have a plane to fly and will stay on half-pay, the report stated, while all other working flight crew must take a salary reduction of 15 percent.
Once the 'pooled' pilots are called back in, members of the operating flight crew will get back 7.5 percent of their deducted pay, while the rest of the wage cut is lost, the report said. The bulk of pilots who are 'pooled' will be first officers of Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
The Sun reported on Sunday that the agreement between British Airways and the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) has yet to be finalized but is a relief for the carrier after fears of strikes. "Constructive talks are now ongoing with pilot union BALPA to save as many jobs as possible," British Airways told Yahoo Finance UK.
The move comes moments after British Airways announced it was planning to slash 12,000 jobs and impose salary cuts for 36,000 staff, after the airlines experienced its steepest ever downturn this year due to the global health crisis. Passenger jets were grounded in March as part of lockdown protocols in an attempt to contain the pandemic.
BALPA is the only union that has engaged with the British carrier during its so-called "fire and rehire" move which have the company trying to do away with the 12,000 workers from its 42,000 strong headcount.
GMB and Unite unions represent the bulk of British Airways personnel including cabin crew, ground workers, engineers, and admin employees.
Both Unite and GMB have declined to enter into an agreement with British Airways as they insist on rehiring staff whose jobs are not cut with new conditions and terms and lower salaries. BA's plans have come under heavy criticisms from members of the parliament, the general public and even celebrities.
A recent report by the Transport Select Committee accused British Airways of a calculated attempt to take advantage of the ongoing coronavirus crisis by letting go of thousands of employees and downgrading terms and other conditions.
Meanwhile, the threat to the airlines' employees remains: if a deal on the revisions cannot be reached, British Airways will force the matter by handing personnel their notice and offering them new contracts under different conditions, insiders said.
