Unions meet BA to discuss engineers' pay

Monday, 4 August 2003 12:00 AM

British Airways will meet with unions today to discuss how the flag carrier's efficiency drive will affect its 4,000 engineering staff.

Amicus, the GMB and Transport and General Workers' Union met with BA bosses last week to finally resolve the dispute with check-in-staff over the controversial "swipe card" system.

They meet today to discuss the 2003 pay and conditions offer for BA's engineers. The unions to see engineers receive the same terms as check-in-staff.

If an agreement is not reached by September 17th strikes could follow, unions said.

Staff took unofficial strike action on July 18 and July 19 over the plans. The action cost BA an estimated 30-40 million pounds.

Some staff feared jobs would go during quiet periods and more hours piled on during peak times.

BA had to modify its plans to introduce the clocking-in system to appease striking staff.

The Mail on Sunday said yesterday that BA was contemplating cutting 2000 more jobs, on top of the 11,000 jobs in two years already announced, if it failed to get produce results out of its latest efficiency drive.

Loss of business traffic in the prolonged uncertainty after September 11th, cheap flights on budget airlines and the wildcat strikes have hit BA's profits hard.

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