BMI Baby Workers Petition Government To Save Their Jobs
Staff at budget airline BMI Baby, who face redundancy if a buyer cannot be found for the business, have launched an online petition calling on the government to save their jobs.
So far, 840 people have signed the e-petition, which has been started by Daniel Goffin on the government's website. It is directed at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills - and calls on the department to save the airline.
Last month, it was announced that Castle Donington-based BMI Baby would close in September if a buyer was not found, putting up to 374 local jobs at risk.
The petition reads: "BMI Baby employees feel this takeover should never have been approved.
"The redundancy package being offered to BMI Baby staff is poor and unfair as we are unable to seek new employment before September 10 without facing losing our redundancy - thus missing out on other airline recruitment for this year.
"BA is also intending to use our aircraft to supply their routes in London - but still BMI Baby staff face job cuts.
"We just want to be heard and treated fairly.
"It's not just BMI Baby staff facing job losses but our ground staff face cuts as well. The Midland airports need our airline to give lower income families the chance to go on holiday without extra travel costs to London airports."
BMI Baby employs 497 staff in the United Kingdom, including 83 people at its Castle Donington headquarters.
It has 98 pilots, 117 cabin crew and 76 operations staff based at East Midlands Airport.
The sale of BMI Baby has come about after International Airlines Group (IAG) took over its parent company BMI Group. IAG is in the process of merging BMI's operations with those of British Airways, which it also owns. This will result in 1,200 redundancies at BMI Group - which are in addition to the jobs under threat at BMI Baby.
After sealing the deal to buy BMI Group, IAG announced its intention to offload the group's subsidiaries - BMI Regional and BMI Baby.
The company recently completed an £8 million deal to sell BMI Regional to a consortium of businessmen in Scotland. But BMI Baby, which this month stopped flying to a number of destinations, remains on the market. On Monday, the GMB union started talks with British Airways bosses over plans to integrate BMI staff within its business.
GMB organiser Eddie Parker said: "BA wants to make everyone redundant to let a new provider re-employ staff on lesser terms. GMB wants current staff transferred with all their current terms and conditions intact. If BA wants redundancies they need to put a top-end redundancy package on offer."
Both IAG and BA declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the BMI Baby petition closes on September 13 - three days after the airline is due to cease operations. To sign it go to http:// epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ petitions/34747.
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