Managing Employee Relations in Contemporary Organisations

Managing Employee Relations in Contemporary Organisations

Introduction

In the early 1980s, as a company located within the public sector, British Airways BA had many of the characteristics of public sector employee relations more generally. It was highly unionised, at one point recognising 16 separate trade unions, among which was BALPA (British Airlines Pilots Association), a union with particular strategic influence within the industry.

There was also a well-established industry-wide collective bargaining framework with BA as a key player on the employers' side of the negotiating body, the National Joint Council for Civil Air Transport (NJCCAT), together with consultative forum at company level.

Background

In many respects collective bargaining was complex, sectional and fragmented, and management's approach to employee relations, 'pragmatic and opportunistic' (Blyton and Turnbull 1998 Pp. 78). By the 1980s the new strategic focus of the company meant this approach had to change but BA was careful to maintain relations with the unions alongside an approach to culture change that was more individualistic. In effect the company operated dual-arrangements for the period - communicating and consulting with staff and unions - an approach that largely continues today. The period provided evidence of the company trying to 'by-pass' long established union-based communication channels, and in the 1990s much of BA's employment relations strategy focused on the reorganisation of collective bargaining. The NJCCAT was abolished in 1996 but national level bargaining through five separate National Sector Panels for pilots, cabin crew, clerical grades, ground/support crew and management remained, although was redefined and reinforced (Blyton and Turnbull 2004: 97).

To illustrate this point, in 1996, BA replaced Singapore Airlines as the World's most profitable airline, but this was accompanied by further planned workforce reductions under its Business Efficiency Programme (BEP). This initiative created considerable disquiet within the airline, and the 'market-led' approach of BEP led to outsourcing of a number of activities as well as job cuts (Blyton and Turnbull 2004). The loss of 5,000 jobs in the company's 'backroom' operations led to a strike by cabin crew staff in August 1997.

Problems have also surfaced in recent years over other staff issues. In the 1990s, disputes occurred involving baggage handlers, cabin crews, engineers and pilots, and more recently problems over the introduction of a new 'swipe card clocking-in' system (in 2003), estimated to have cost the company tens of millions of pounds. 2004 witnessed a strike over pay and long-standing concerns over staffing levels and in 2005 a dispute took place involving sympathy strike action by BA workers over the sacking of 670 workers at BA's catering suppliers - Gate Gourmet, estimated to have cost the company £45 millions.

In 2005, the company introduced new regulations to cut absence levels, which at the time were estimated to be averaging 22 days per staff member a year, a measure that did not lead directly to strike action but substantially worsened an already tense employment relations climate. Threatened strike action took place in 2006, over changes to the pensions system, a threat repeated ...