Willie Walsh waives £334,000 bonus at strike-bound BA

Shame some of his fellow management didn’t follow WW’s example and turn down their bonuses. In fact, they should not pick up another performance related bonus until BA are in the black

Here here

Hi rdc1000,

Please check your inbox.

Personally I still prefer BA’s Club product and service to that of Emirates. Albeit, I’ve not been on their A380.

Am I right in thinking that you work in Engineering Rob (I think you once said what you do, but I can’t remember for certain)? Isn’t BA Engineering a seperate legal entity which is 100% owned by BA? If that is the case then it will be an interesting pay negotiation because I’d have thought it would be easier to close the unit down and outsource than for adjusting for Cabin Crew?

It has cut costs from everywhere else, and indeed all other sectors of the airline staff have agreed to such cuts. This is the last area holding onto a bygone era..

Not true. The section I work in still have to negotiate.

Don’t forget who put them at this record profit to start with, WW. He was the first CEO in the history of BA to achieve a 10% operating margin.

Yes, when he took over from Eddington and staff morale was at a level which encouraged the workforce. Unfortunately, as you say WW has made that a bygone era by scaling down the premium product, leaving us trailing behind Emirates etc. Instead, he would rather waste money by daubing the aircraft with childish comments and producing a new all colour staff magazine full of propaganda.

…why doesn’t BA look at its entire operation in order to work out where the axe needs to fall in terms of making those unnecessary costs rather than just blindly turning to and hitting the hard-working people that represent the brand and perform

It has cut costs from everywhere else, and indeed all other sectors of the airline staff have agreed to such cuts. This is the last area holding onto a bygone era.

You could cut more fo the customer service, but then englishrob would just say that was degrading the airline even more. It has to survive somehow.

Is that it?!

Taking a company from record profits to record losses within 12 months!

Don’t forget who put them at this record profit to start with, WW. He was the first CEO in the history of BA to achieve a 10% operating margin.

What was WW done? Negotiated deals with all unions bar one moronic, stupid one so that the company survives. But buerks in that sole union (and those who support them), so it seems, are oblivious to the dangers of their cost structure being uncompetitive and so at a competitive disadvantage and unwilling to not make temporary savings which they want brought back. Perhaps we ought to remember the huge profits that have taken place under WW as well.

Is that it?!

Actually the cuts and changes in T&C’s that WW wants are not temporary, but permanent and he hasn’t negotiated with all the unions. Thats why he wants to break BASSA so he can attempt to ride rough shod over the other unions.

Here’s just a few things that WW has done from a staff members point of view since taking over….
Taking a company from record profits to record losses within 12 months!
Completely bodging up the opening of T5 because of his ignorance of listening to staff. This cost millions in lost revenue and an excess of bad PR
Management team got caught “fiddling” the books with Virgin incurring even more millions in fine payments and even more bad PR.
Demoralising a normally motivated and loyal workforce.
Scaling down the inflight service which gave even more bad PR and led to loss of passengers and revenue.
Prolonged a strike by CC which could have so easily been resolved many weeks ago, costing 100’s of millions in lost revenue and aircraft leasing costs.

And yet the fat cats of BA management think they’ve been a success and deserve a bonus!?
Makes you laugh, they said that we are in a fight for survival and yet manage to find £1.8 billion down the back of the sofa to take on the union.

What was WW done? Negotiated deals with all unions bar one moronic, stupid one so that the company survives. But buerks in that sole union (and those who support them), so it seems, are oblivious to the dangers of their cost structure being uncompetitive and so at a competitive disadvantage and unwilling to not make temporary savings which they want brought back. Perhaps we ought to remember the huge profits that have taken place under WW as well.

I for one look forward to seeing BA operate all long-haul routes come the next strike if only to see the smug faces on Unite disappear as they realised that the LHR aircraft can operate with less crew, as they themselves negotiated that for the LGW crew.

Funny, I thought by standing up to the bully boys of Unite showed he had a backbone and that it’s actually the leaders of unite who have showed nothing but a “combative/macho” style of handling. Every chance they get they mouth off about WW.

Here here

I always thought that bonuses were awarded for good performance. What has WW done to deserve to even be offered this sum of money? If anything he should have been sacked.

Quoted from a BBC news web page……. “Willie Walsh needs to rebuild relations with the unions at BA if he wants to receive a full bonus next year.

The pay committee at the airline have set him and other directors the challenge of “improving industrial relations”, as a specific target for assessing their eligibility for a bonus in 2010/2011.

The task may be tough given that there have been 15 days of strikes by cabin crew so far this financial year, and Unite is threatening further action over the summer. Other strategic targets set for executive directors include reducing BA’s pension deficit and further progress in the planned merger with Iberia.

If Mr Walsh hits all the targets he will double his annual pay of £674,000″

Hmmm £674,000 not bad eh? Shame some of his fellow management didn’t follow WW’s example and turn down their bonuses. In fact, they should not pick up another performance related bonus until BA are in the black

You have accidently hit the nail on the head against your own arguments there C9.

Talking about negotiation is fine, but it isn’t just pure salaries that are causing the problem (and indeed nobody will be taking pay cut at BA)…so if the airline is to survive then they need to cut unnecessary costs and so they need to impliment the new working conditions.

Ok, I think we can agree on this, however, my point is and has always been throughout this whole situation, why doesn’t BA look at its entire operation in order to work out where the axe needs to fall in terms of making those unnecessary costs rather than just blindly turning to and hitting the hard-working people that represent the brand and perform to a consistently high standard which helps to continue bringing passengers, but ultimately, revenue into the company.

Admittedly I do not know enough about the airline itself or its working practices, but it seems to me that BA has far too many managers and high-end level of staff that get paid far too much money for the kind of jobs that they do…why not look to make savings there?

Right now, it seems to me as though BA can be compared to something similar to that of the Labour party. For about 5 years (2003-08) it made a profit, and so they seem to have taken the attitude that they were impervious to any future challenges within the global market conditions (such as Gordon Brown’s claim to of done away with “boom and bust” when he was Chancellor!), and since then they have failed to act when it was necessary in order to adapt to these new threats and challenges, so much so that any changes cost-cutting measures they make just end up “tinkering” on the edges.

As I have said before, I think what BA needs first and foremost is a new leader and complete overhaul of its management structure, then they need to look at the markets that they serve as I am sure there are some routes that they serve that are loss-making (why not cut these routes and use the aircraft/crews on better, more profitable routes?). Only then we will truly see any significant changes made, and hopefully, a return to profitability.

……the company I work for is only relatively new in comparison to something like BA which has been around for years and has let these kind of problems manifest themselves into what is happening today rather than tackling the problems in a better way, whereas our management have been quite good about the whole situation and offered to sit down and negotiate an agreeable settlement, so much so that the new offer was overwhelmingly accepted by a huge majority.

You have accidently hit the nail on the head against your own arguments there C9. That is exactly BA’s problem, they are old and have a legacy of employment structure which is outdated and is stopping them competing against the newer companies that have more modern pay and condition structures. I know you’re not with an airline, but your company has the benefit that its conditions of employment reflect a modern aviation market, not one that existed in 1970 when Government’s used to have to subsidise their airlines. If you’d like BA cabin crew to retain their benefits AND for BA to exist then you have to accept that the Government will need to step in and subsidise the carrier (which is illegal under EU law anyway) and then you, as someone who pays tax, will be propping up outdated working conditions. It’s fine to say you support the BA crew, but they’re on more privelaged working conditions than you are, I just don’t think you’ve noticed that.

Talking about negotiation is fine, but it isn’t just pure salaries that are causing the problem (and indeed nobody will be taking pay cut at BA), but the conditions, such as the excessive crews onboard, your company doesn’t have these issues. Other legacy carriers, such as KLM, Air France and Lufthansa have over the years been able to reduce the number of crew onboard but that increasingly leaves BA in a position from which it cannot compete. There is therefore no negotiation to be had, it is a binary form, i.e. you either HAVE or do NOT HAVE a purser who doesn’t do any ‘heavy lifting’ on board. They cannot negotiate for 0.5 of a purser onboard, so if the airline is to survive then they need to cut unnecessary costs and so they need to impliment the new working conditions.

About time too? He’s refused his bonus for a few years now. So it’s nothing to do with the ****-poor Union doing it’s utmost to ruin an airline. Mind you, it would be good to see BA collapse just so we could look at Unite explaining to it’s members (and the public!) how from having BA guaranteeing about pay levels in exchange for a reduction of a single crew member on LHR ops with no redundancies has led to 50,000 job losses.

About time too; finally the man seems to have some sort of back-bone after all.

That said, this does not excuse, nor does it does it justify his & other top level management figures within BA for their “combative/macho” style handling of the current situation within the company.

Funny, I thought by standing up to the bully boys of Unite showed he had a backbone and that it’s actually the leaders of unite who have showed nothing but a “combative/macho” style of handling. Every chance they get they mouth off about WW.

About time too; finally the man seems to have some sort of back-bone after all.

That said, this does not excuse, nor does it does it justify his & other top level management figures within BA for their “combative/macho” style handling of the current situation within the company.

Towards the end of the latest period of strikes, I must admit I was actually slowly beginning to see BA’s side of the argument, however, whatever ground that they made up on me then was very swiftly lost when I read the front page of the Financial Times the other day in which Willie Walsh was quoted as saying that he still has not ruled out the possibility of sacking those members of staff that went on strike…surely a man as big and powerful as Wille Walsh would like to believe he is should know that he cannot legally get rid of someone for what was a perfectly legal mandated ballot, and a fundamental human right to go on strike!:mad:

What I suspect will now ensue thoughout BA, will be a manipulative and vindictive campaign against those people that did go on strike in order to force them out altogether, even if an agreement is soon reached with Unite, and this would be an utter disgrace, but that is just my opinion.

Interestingly, I have just been asked by my branch of Unite to vote on a pay offer from my company (sorry, can’t go into specifics!), and I voted to accept the deal. Whilst this may come as surprise to some on here, especially considering the level of support I put up in favour of the strikes at BA, I chose to accept the new pay conditions because the company I work for is only relatively new in comparison to something like BA which has been around for years and has let these kind of problems manifest themselves into what is happening today rather than tackling the problems in a better way, whereas our management have been quite good about the whole situation and offered to sit down and negotiate an agreeable settlement, so much so that the new offer was overwhelmingly accepted by a huge majority.

However, more of management should follow this example.

Maybe they should at that.

I work in aviation and it has been 3yrs since I have enjoyed a pay rise of any type, and due to the nature of our operation no staff travel perks are available to us. However we do get 2 free standby tickets a year with a certain friendly airline. In all fairness our owners and other senior managers have taken no pay increases for the last 3yrs either. Our company does not have bonuses and they have had no new company cars for the last 4 yrs. Like the cabin crew involved in this strike no one holds a gun to my head to do the job and I’m free to move on if the job is no longer suitable or paying enough.