British Airways has asked the conciliation service Acas to help it reach a deal with unions over jobs cuts and a pay freeze in a bid to avoid a damaging strike.
Talks between the airline and union officials ended without agreement last night even though the company had set a deadline of yesterday for reaching a deal.
BA wants to cut more than 3,500 jobs and freeze pay as part of a huge cost cutting drive it says is necessary in the wake of a downturn in flights caused by the recession.
BA said in statement: “It has not proved possible to conclude an agreement with the trade unions on our pay and productivity discussions by the deadline of June 30th.
“We have therefore asked the conciliation service Acas to facilitate any future meetings.”
Failure to reach a deal could lead to the threat of industrial action by thousands of workers over the busy summer months, which would heap more problems on BA.
The GMB and Unite unions have said they are willing to continue talking to the management about ways of cutting costs and saving money.
But a number of sticking points remain, including fears of compulsory job losses as well as concern over planned changes to consultations over redundancies.
PA