Brown hopes for settlement in BA dispute

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today that he hoped for a settlement between British Airways and the Unite trade union “quite soon”.

Brown also said he thought the Public and Commercial Services union, which is representing civil servants in a row over redundancy pay, should end their dispute.

Mr Brown was questioned about industrial disputes, benefits and the NHS when he took part in a phone-in with Radio Clyde.

He said: “I hope we’ll get a settlement of the British Airways dispute by people talking to each other.”

When asked “how soon”, he replied: “As soon as possible, I think quite soon.”

BA cabin crew returned to work yesterday following the end of a four-day strike in the ongoing dispute over jobs and cost-cutting.

Unite has pledged not to hold any strikes over Easter, giving a window of opportunity for negotiations to try to break the deadlocked row and avert any more industrial action.

Mr Brown said: “All the disputes should be capable of solution, we don’t want to see any disputes at this moment and I do regret the fact we’ve had a Civil Service dispute with the PCS union.”

He said it was necessary to change a situation which allowed very senior civil servants to retire early and receive payments of nearly £1m (€1.13m).

Mr Brown said: “We had to change that situation but we built in a protection for lower-paid workers, so lower-paid workers would receive a minimum sum.

“I can’t defend a situation where very senior civil servants retire early and get five or six times their salary, and that is payments of hundreds of thousands of pounds of your money as well as my money, and I think you would agree with me that, at the very top, this practice is just not acceptable.”

He said he thought the British government’s proposals were fair and added: “I really think the PCS should call off its dispute.”

Mr Brown said that, in the last 12 years, the number of days lost through industrial strike action had been “a 10th” of what it was under a Conservative government.

He said: “We’ve had industrial peace in most of the years of this government.

“I believe that what is happening is we are settling some of these disputes. We’ve got a period where there has been some wage restraint, we’ve got a period where there’s a lot of restructuring going on, so I hope we’ll get a settlement of the British Airways dispute by people talking to each other.

“I hope the RMT, because they’re in arbitration at the moment, will find a solution.

“I know the gas dispute that was in existence has been settled.

“I hope that people will see that, by not inflaming these issues but being very tough and very hard about what needs to be done and getting people to arbitration, it’s the best way of sorting out a problem.”