The three main unions at British Airways have just recently agreed to repay the firm’s £3.7 billion pension deficit. This new agreement means that staff earning more than £20,000 a year could see their contributions rise by up to 4.5%. Right now the deal has been agreed on over a 20 year period with British Airways paying £330 million a year towards the pension deficit.

The rest of this money is set to come from the increase in contribution from employees. This contribution is expected to raise around £37 million a year. Staff are entitled to stick with their existing pension schemes if they prefer.

As of now, Unite, GMB and Balpa will recommend this new deal to their 100,000 members. However, British Airways is still waiting for approval from the trustees of the pension fund. It is very vital that British Airways resolves its pension fund issues if they want to go ahead with the Iberia merger.

This pension deficit is just one of the many things that British Airways is currently dealing with. Right now the airline has also been dealing with a possible strike threat by the Unite union, which has been scheduled for later this month.

Although Unite has told its members to expect this deal it is understood that this new agreement will not affect the union’s choice to strike. This is because the strike in question is over payment and working conditions, not the pension deficit. Despite the upcoming strike, British Airways has noted that it will continue to run its business as normally as possible. The airline said that it should be able to still fly about 60 percent of its passengers.

Subscribe for free and recieve the latest Self-Catering-Breaks news and stories
Filed under Business & Finance, Europe News, Travel News, UK News

• Royal Wedding Likely Not to be Affected by British Airways Strikes
• British Airways Still Under Threat of Strike by Cabin Crew
• British Airways Cabin Crew Announce Rejection of Final Pay Offer
• Business Visits and Events Partnership says British Airways Strike Could Benefit Event Sector
• British Airways and Union Talks Continue to Fail
• Chief Executive of British Airways Says He Won’t Back Down From Unite
• British Airways Gets Backing from Ryanair Boss to Break Union
• British Airways Announces Another Expansion of its Schedule
• British Airways Sees Cabin Crew Start New 5-Day Strike
• British Airways and Unite Union Leaders to Adjourn Talks Until Friday

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 11:22 am and is filed under Business & Finance, Europe News, Travel News, UK News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.