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LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest pilots union
welcomed a lawmaker's attempt to ban companies from forcing
employees to accept inferior terms through "fire and rehire"
tactics, a practise which it says British Airways is using.
British Airways has come under fire from UK lawmakers for
using a furlough scheme while also seeking to axe 12,000
workers, and a number of politicians have publicly criticised it
for offering less favourable terms to staff who stay.
The public clash over the issue could now become the subject
of parliamentary debate and possible new legislation, after one
member of parliament, Gavin Newlands, introduced a bill to the
House of Commons.
"The behaviour of companies like British Airways who
threaten mass redundancies to force workers onto vastly reduced
T&Cs (terms and conditions) should be illegal. I've therefore
laid a bill with cross party support to make it illegal,"
Newlands, a lawmaker for the Scottish National Party, said on
Twitter.
The head of UK pilots union BALPA said in a statement on
Wednesday that BA had threatened both cabin crew and pilots with
being hired on worse terms and he welcomed the bill.
"It is absolutely right that this practice of essentially
legalised blackmail should be outlawed in the UK," he said.
BA said in April it needed to axe up to 12,000 jobs,
equivalent to 28% of its workforce, to ensure it can survive in
the much smaller travel market that will emerge from the
coronavirus pandemic.
A spokesman for the airline declined to comment on the
redundancy process on Wednesday. The chief executive of BA
parent company IAG said in a letter to lawmakers last week that
claims it was seeking to rehire people on reduced pay, terms and
conditions were "vastly exaggerated".
BA is trying to consult on the proposed redundancies, and
while BALPA is engaging with the airline, two other unions Unite
and GMB have so far declined to attend meetings.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton)
