Financial News

LONDON (ShareCast) - British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) is hoping conciliation service ACAS will be able to broker a settlement with unions in a row over jobs and pay.

The airline has so far failed to agree a deal with the Unite and GMB unions to avoid strike action during the busy summer period.

ACAS has been called in to head any future meetings after last night's deadline passed with no agreement in sight.

"It has not proved possible to conclude an agreement with the trade unions on our pay and productivity discussions by the deadline of June 30, BA said Wednesday.

"We have therefore asked the conciliation service, ACAS, to faciliate any future meetings we may have."

BA is said to be after a two-year pay freeze and fewer allowances and benefits after posting a full-year loss of £401m last month. It made £922m the year before.

Nearly 7,000 staff have already offered to take a pay cut to help the carrier struggle through its current financial crisis following a direct request chief executive Willie Walsh.

Of those, 800 offered to work for nothing for up to a month, another 4,000 will take unpaid leave, while 1,400 people have volunteered to work part-time.

Walsh and finance director Keith Williams have both already agreed to work unpaid in July. The airline said the actions by its staff will save it £10m.

But the group still wants as many as 3,000 redundancies among crew and administrative staff.