UK - The GMB trade union has called off the second day of a strike by members of the British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA) over pay and pensions, following a new offer from BALPA.

GMB representatives said the new deal is "acceptable, adding it would be recommending it to the 33 members at a meeting earlier today - at which it is believed members agreed to put the offer to a secret ballot.

Changes to the pension scheme originally proposed by BALPA included closing the DB scheme to new entrants, raising the retirement age to 65 and introducing a new defined contribution (DC) scheme for new members with 12% employer contributions. (See earlier IPE article: Airline union faces strike over staff pension closure)

But following an earlier threat of strike action by the GMB in July, further negotiations hosted by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) led to BALPA improving the pension offer by reducing the retirement age increase from 65 to 63 but moving the proposed accrual rate from 1/60th to 1/64th.

Talks faltered last week as GMB representatives continued to claim members should be allowed to retire at 60 and receive an accrual rate of 1/60th, so an independent actuary was appointed to submit a report on the position of the fund to be presented at the "last ditch" attempts to avert the strike on Tuesday. (See earlier IPE article: BALPA faces new strike threat as pension talks falter)

The actuary's report concluded a possible solution was to raise the retirement age to 64, with an employee contribution rate of 7.5% and an accrual rate of 1/60th, which led BALPA to put forward a revised offer of a retirement age of 63, an accrual rate of 1/60th but employee contributions of 8.5% and a special 2% actuarial reduction for members retiring between the age of 60 and 63.

The GMB rejected this offer - which also included a £200 non-pensionable bonus, and two-year pay deal of RPI +1% (capped at 5%) from January 1 2009 - and instead implemented the first part of the two-day strike.

It later confirmed after yesterday's strike action further that talks had resulted in a new offer from BALPA, which Dave Kent, GMB organiser, said was "acceptable to GMB representatives". 

Under the terms of the deal, BALPA maintains its pension proposals but has added a third year to the pay settlement, so it is RPI+1% (capped at 5%) from January 1, 2010 provided its subscription income remains above a certain level, instead of paying the £200 bonus.

Kent said: "GMB has suspended the strike. We have called members to a mass meeting to explain to them the details of the new offer. I am delighted with this turn of events. We have achieved a result which I believe will be acceptable to GMB members employed at BALPA."

Jim McAuslan, general secretary of BALPA, said: "I am pleased we have been able to agree a way forward. We now need to focus all our attention on meeting the challenge of the turmoil in the aviation industry and building a strong union to protect and promote our members interests."

In June, 85% of members voted in favour of strike action over changes to pay and pensions, however BALPA revealed the pension scheme had a deficit of £4.8m (€1.6m) and the pension changes were necessary to stop the position getting worse.

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