Pregnant cabin crew get compensation

British Airways (BA) has agreed to pay compensation worth £2.3 million to female cabin staff who lost out on pay when they were pregnant. Around 500 cabin staff were affected by the practice of transferring women to ground duties when they became pregnant, losing the allowances paid when on flying duty.

Brendan Gold, T&G transport union officer said: "The earnings of cabin crew are significantly influenced by their allowances when they are on flying duty. It was an unfair anomaly that when women cabin crew became pregnant and were transferred to ground duties they lost the allowances and, consequently, a significant amount of money".

The T&G has been battling with BA over the issue for three years. Mr Gold added: "We have established an important principle. BA is a huge company employing over thirteen and a half thousand cabin crew of whom six hundred could be pregnant or on maternity leave at any one time".