BA strike talks adjourned

Talks aimed at averting next week’s strike by British Airways cabin crew were adjourned tonight and will resume tomorrow, BA announced.

The airline’s chief executive, Willie Walsh, led the company’s negotiators in meetings with officials from the Transport and General Workers Union including its general secretary Tony Woodley.

The talks lasted several hours in the search for a last-ditch deal which would halt the planned walkout by thousands of stewards and stewardesses on Tuesday and Wednesday.

BA has already cancelled all passenger flights out of Heathrow for the duration of the strike as well as domestic and European flights to and from Gatwick.

Hundreds of thousands of passengers have already been hit by the decision which will lead to the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights.

The union has called two three-day strikes from February 5 and February 12 unless the deadlock is broken.

The union called next week’s strike following complaints from cabin crew that they were being forced to work when they were ill because of a new sickness absence policy.

But BA countered that unions had agreed to introduce the new policy which had reduced the average number of days cabin crew take sick from 22 a year to 12.