British Airways has improved a pay offer for ground staff in a bid to stave off a planned 24-hour strike that threatens to disrupt the British bank holiday weekend at the end of the month.
BA said today it would offer staff a £1,000 sterling sum for good attendance on top of an existing pay offer of an 8.5 per cent rise over three years.
However, unions warned it did not mean the threat of a strike later this month had been averted as they prepared for further meetings this afternoon to consider the offer.
The airline said staff would earn the bonus if they were absent from work for no more than 16 days in a two-year period, which it said would meet union demands.
BA shares rose 2.5 per cent to 221-3/4 pence on hopes the offer would avert a costly strike, but analysts said the offer was a quick fix option that would not solve the airline's problems.
BA is negotiating with three unions representing more than 10,000 check-in staff, baggage handlers and other employees to try to negotiate a solution to the long-running pay dispute.
Members of the GMB union are threatening to strike for 24 hours over the August bank holiday weekend, unless the airline raises its offer of an 8.5 per cent increase over three years.
The outcome of a vote by more than 8,000 members of the larger Transport and General Workers Union will be known later this week.