Agents unconcerned by BA plight

Thursday, 25 Jul, 2003 0

Agents in the UK seem to have little sympathy for British Airways, which continues to find itself in a highly damaging row with check-in staff this morning.

The check-in staff are concerned that a new electronic clocking-in system will prevent flexible working patterns. All night talks aimed at ending the dispute failed to resolve the issue and the two sides will now not meet again until next Tuesday. Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) general secretary Sir Bill Morris has declared he needs an urgent meeting with the airline’s chief executive Rod Eddington to try to avert a “catastrophe” at the airline.

And BA now faces the prospect of its engineers, entering the dispute making any future action even more disruptive.

The news that agreement has still not been reached will inevitably have a negative impact on forward bookings, with passengers understandably reluctant to book flights while there is a chance of further strikes. Virgin Atlantic claims that its bookings doubled last weekend because of the dispute.

However few agents seem to have much sympathy with BA’s predicament. Kim Grierson, manager of Whitesides Tours in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire told TravelMole: “The only way to describe BA is pants. They were all agent-friendly a few years ago but now it’s a different story. They have been getting worse and worse and I have no sympathy for them at all.”

BA says the Automated Time Recording (ATR) electronic signing-in system will allow it to record accurately who is at work and does not constitute a change to its employees’ terms and conditions of employment. It points out that over 2,000 BA staff at Heathrow have been using the system for nearly three years.

The airline is currently trying to clear a backlog of over 10,000 suitcases left at Heathrow following the wild-cat strike by check-in staff at the weekend.

What do you think? Is BA being held to ransom by its staff over a relatively minor issue or does it deserve everything it gets? Add a comment to the bottom of this article to let us know your views.

Also see today’s TravelMole comment BA needs friends, not enemies