New strike threat hits BA flights

Tens of thousands of holidaymakers and business travellers faced fresh misery last night, with peace moves at British Airways in imminent danger of collapse.

Leaders of 9,000 cabin crew threatened BA with another three-day stoppage after strikers returning to duty over the weekend were ordered home without pay. Managers told returning employees that they were not needed, despite fulfilling a demand that they guarantee to work normally.

Union officials gave BA until 3pm today to reinstate around 100 stewards and stewardesses or face more industrial action, possibly starting next Tuesday.

The news comes at a time when both sides had declared their readiness to find a solution to a conflict which has already caused severe disruption at Heathrow and Gatwick. Many passengers are experiencing continued inconvenience because the airline is having problems coping with the aftermath of the strike, which ended at 6am on Saturday.

The company blamed unprecedented levels of sickness and logistical difficulties because planes were in the wrong place. However the airline hoped that the timetable would be back to normal by mid-week.

On Saturday, managers told a number of returning cabin crew to go home on the grounds that there was no work for them, but rescinded the order for union representatives after protests from the Transport & General Worker's Union.

George Ryde, national official of the union, said yesterday that there was no question of the union drawing up proposals to save pounds 42m - the issue at the heart of the dispute - until all his members were reinstated. Cabin crew walked out last Wednesday after BA imposed a new pay package in order to make the saving .

Mr Ryde said: "I don't understand why our people are being told there is no work for them, when there are forty 757s languishing on the tarmac"

He reminded the airline that Bill Morris, the TGWU general secretary, had said on Friday that it was time to "pause for peace".

The fresh problem emerges ahead of the company's annual general meeting tomorrow, when management was hoping to report on a new atmosphere of co-operation, and that preparations for a settlement were continuing apace.

A spokesman for BA insisted that cabin crew had not been suspended: "We will be in touch as soon as we have work for them," he said.

Cabin crew had been made aware before the strike that there could be difficulties in placing them back on the roster because planes would be in the wrong place. The absences had also made it very difficult to deliver a normal timetable. "We have asked the union to set out its proposals to save pounds 42m and we hope they do so," said the airline spokesman.

Prospects of solving another dispute, involving the airline's 9,000 ground staff, were also in the balance last night. Their representatives also meet today to decide whether to press for fresh negotiations or set dates for strikes. Walkouts would inevitably be co-ordinated with any continuing action by cabin crews.

BA's airport workers are angry over a plan to sell off the company's catering division. The 1,400 workers directly concerned voted last week to reject company proposals to protect their terms and conditions after the sale.

The union will have to decide today whether to seek improvements in the package or opt for strikes in protest at the sell-off.

The airline was still suffering yesterday from the after-effects of last week's stoppage. The company expected that today it would have to cancel 48 out of 122 European flights from Heathrow, seven out of 48 long-haul and 28 out of 60 domestic services.

The airline spokesman, however, said that flights were gradually getting back to normal and that a full timetable should be provided by mid week.

By Saturday, some 2,000 cabin crew had reported sick, although 200 of those have signalled their readiness to return to work, the spokesman said. BA has argued that the high level of sickness during the industrial action was caused by employees' reluctance to go on strike. Union leaders claim the absence was caused by stress following management intimidation.

Some industry sources, however, claimed that many of these stewards and stewardesses who had declared themselves unfit for work were simply employing a device to go on strike while retaining their salaries.