Redundancies at British Airways

That this House recognises that the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has enabled it to work with businesses and trade unions to protect the economy and avoid mass redundancies; appreciates the role aviation workers have played in operating flights, repatriating citizens and delivering essential medical and personal protective equipment supplies; considers it deplorable that whilst IAG is taking UK tax payers’ money, as well as using Spanish government guaranteed loans to purchase an additional airline for the group at a cost of €1.2 Billion, it is serving notice of redundancies to UK employees with British Airways having announced its intention of implementing 12,000 redundancies and is introducing inferior contracts for all employees; believes that it is immoral that British Airways is utilising public funds, designed to protect jobs, while simultaneously seeking mass redundancies in haste, given also that furloughed British Airways workers are unable to engage in consultation relating to these redundancies and that British Airways has access to £3 billion cash reserve and IAG credit line equivalents of €10.7 billion; and demands that British Airways halts its opportunistic redundancy and restructuring and engages constructively with unions and Government to positively plan for a just and sustainable future based upon a tripartite approach to ensuring UK connectivity and the aviation industry is maintained for the benefit of all and not just one company.