British Airways braced for strike action

Published on Wednesday 1 July 2009 14:04

British Airways has asked the conciliation service Acas to help it reach a deal with unions over jobs cuts and a pay freeze in a bid to avoid a damaging strike.

Talks between the airline and union officials ended without agreement last night even though the company had set a deadline of yesterday for reaching a deal.

BA wants to cut more than 3,500 jobs and freeze pay as part of a huge cost cutting drive it says is necessary in the wake of a downturn in flights caused by the recession.

BA said in statement: "It has not proved possible to conclude an agreement with the trade unions on our pay and productivity discussions by the deadline of June 30.

"We have therefore asked the conciliation service Acas to facilitate any future meetings."

Failure to reach a deal could lead to the threat of industrial action by thousands of workers over the busy summer months, which would heap more problems on BA.

The GMB and Unite unions have said they are willing to continue talking to the management about ways of cutting costs and saving money.

But a number of sticking points remain, including fears of compulsory job losses as well as concern over planned changes to consultations over redundancies.

Union leaders turned up at a hotel near Heathrow airport hoping talks would restart at 10am today.

But no management from BA arrived.

Mick Rix, national official of the GMB union, said he was "bitterly disappointed" that the company did not turn up for talks this morning.

But he added: "I want to make it clear that there is no formal disagreement or dispute between BA and GMB.

"We are happy to cooperate with Acas and meet with BA at any time to find an agreed way forward."