GMB brand BA 'pennywise and pound foolish' as airline plans to outsource yet more jobs in wake of meltdown
2 min read
Company appears to have learnt nothing after 75,000 passengers were stranded.
GMB, the aviation union, has branded British Airways ‘pennywise and pound foolish’ as the company plans to outsource yet more jobs – despite an IT meltdown last week which left 75,000 passengers stranded.
Today BA announced more than 1,000 jobs from call centres in Newcastle and Manchester are in line to be outsourced to Capita.
GMB has demanded input into the call for an independent inquiry at British Airways into the cause of the Heathrow power outage that left 75,000 passengers stranded and took so long to put right.
GMB wants a moratorium on any further BA IAG plans to outsource a further 600 directly employed BA IT jobs.
A whistleblower revealed to the Press Association that BA had been hit by power outages in the past, and a serious fire 20 years ago, but the system was always resilient enough to be protected by its skilled and professional IT personal.
Large problems like this happen, but now is the time to rectify this shortfall by bringing the outsourced jobs back to the UK – rather than offshoring yet more jobs.
Mick Rix, GMB National Officer for Aviation, said:
“IAG BA appears to have learnt nothing from the stranding of 75,000 passengers and seems hell-bent on shedding hundreds of quality jobs with this short-sighted proposal to outsource BA call centres in the North of England.
“British Airways seems to want to become a virtual reality airline, with no employment responsibility and this plan further degrades the value of work and what work means to staff and passengers alike.
“Despite record profits, this is the latest penny wise and pound foolish plan from IAG BA and is consistent with those that led to the IT meltdown.
"Hard working, loyal and dedicated GMB members are to be rewarded with the outsourcing of their jobs to the lowest price bidder.
“IAG BA appears to have learnt none of the lessons of the outsourcing and offshoring of hundreds of IT jobs which resulted in 75,000 passengers worldwide being stranded.
“BA is not a start-up company - it makes good profits.
“It’s time they treated work and their workforce with respect.”
