Bullying of BA staff rife, says union

Bullying of cabin crew staff by management at British Airways (BA) is rife, according to a survey of 1,905 BA staff conducted by general union Unite. It found almost half of workers said they had been bullied.

Unite believes the bullying has taken root as a direct result of the staff’s on-going battle over terms and conditions. One survey respondent described it as “institutionalised bullying”.

The top three forms of bullying given by participants were intimidation, unfair criticism and humiliation. Six out of 10 workers did not report the bullying, with many saying that it would be pointless because of the attitude of management.

One particularly disturbing finding was that over 85% of cases of bullying involved more than one person doing the bullying. And over three quarters of respondents said they knew of more than four colleagues who had also been subject to bullying.