British Airways Letter

January 2021

Dear British Airways Cabin Crew,

For those of you who I haven’t spoken to or messaged yet, I wanted to introduce myself and explain how I got involved in this case.

On 13 August 2020, I got a call from a BA Worldwide Cabin Crew member. She told me that she had pressed to “accept” voluntary redundancy a few days before but she really didn’t want to leave BA but was now being forced to sign a settlement agreement. She told me that she had worked out that her VR payment was even worse than if she had been made compulsorily redundant. I couldn’t believe this. How could a voluntary redundancy payment be worse than a compulsory redundancy payment? Why would anyone take that offer? I thought she must be wrong. I then looked into it and realised she was right. I then dug a bit deeper and found out about a whole host of horrors that BA was inflicting on you – “Friday night bomb” emails designed to evoke terror and make you stew over the weekend, the unreasonably short deadlines to make life defining decisions, the lack of transparency and information available e.g. how the VR had been calculated and if it included CFP, the lack of clear information about what your future would look like if you stayed, no 33% contracts, no trial periods, the refusal to answer reasonable and relevant questions, and the threat of having staff travel benefits withdrawn unless a settlement agreement was signed that waived all your rights to claim against the company, pressure to use the BA appointed solicitor to receive advice. When she told me that BA had threatened to take away her staff travel (a benefit that she was relying on for her retirement) if she didn’t sign a settlement agreement. I didn’t believe her. I said that BA legally couldn’t do that. She told me that BA had previously removed staff travel, for example when cabin crew went on strike in 2010. I was flabbergasted.

I decided to help out, and I set up a Facebook Group to answer people's questions. I helped draft a letter to Willie Walsh asking for “breathing space” as required by the 2012 Redeployment Agreement. I was told that he would ignore the letter - he did. I spoke to many cabin crew; I heard their fears about not being able to pay their mortgages, about needing the 33% contract to look after their elderly parents and disabled children. I spoke to those crew who live in France, Italy and Spain and who had joined BA over 20 years ago when BA wanted to attract crew with foreign languages. I was told that BA intended to tear up the current contracts, along with all the Ts&Cs and issue new contracts with inferior working arrangements, and up to a 60% pay cut. Additionally, due to mixed flying many crew would need to relocate to live closer to Heathrow Airport. BA exerted pressure for crew to agree to have variations made to their contracts without actually being told what those variations would be. I found that difficult to believe too, but discovered that was exactly what BA was proposing.

The more I found out, the more I couldn’t believe how much BA has gotten away with for so long. I have been an employment lawyer for 13 years and I have never seen such appalling behaviour by a company to loyal employees. I myself am a BA frequent flyer and couldn’t believe that you all have been treated like this for so long but at the same time you maintain such a superb level of customer service and professionalism. We all know that Covid has hit the airline industry particularly hard and that lots of people are losing their jobs but there is one thing having to make redundancies because you are desperately trying to save a business, it is quite another to use Covid as a cynical excuse to cheaply dismiss 1,000s of loyal staff and cut the wages of 1,000s of others.

I desperately wanted to take your case on but I was concerned about the size of my team compared to BA’s. I went to speak to bigger law firms with big employment law departments. I assumed that other firms would bite my hand off for the chance to take on a case of such magnitude and where the company has behaved in such an obviously appalling and unlawful way. I was wrong. I was told that this was too big. That BA are too aggressive. I was told that it would be “suicide” to take this case on.

I have to admit, this scared me. There were 4,000 of you who pressed “yes” to VR but then instantly regretted it and didn’t want to sign the settlement agreement. I tried to persuade you not to sign but BA’s might and pressure was too intense. Of the 4,000 VR people, I only managed to persuade 12 not to sign the settlement agreement. I must admit, I felt like I had failed you at this point… But my group began to grow as more people were dismissed by BA in a similarly oppressive manner. As it grew I couldn’t help thinking about the people who had signed the settlement agreement and what legal arguments we could bring to have it overturned.

Thank you