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Not just the proles getting the heave-ho as British Airways races to save millions

Project managers and biz analysts in app delivery at risk too

More details have surfaced about the British Airways job axe hovering above the app delivery team, with project managers and business analysts - not just techies - also at risk of redundancy.

As revealed by El Reg yesterday, BA warned 200 of 424 people in its software unit they could lose their job by December as part of cost cutting plans.

In a memo to staff seen by us, Bill Francis, head of IT at the airline, said the business is “making good progress” to chop annual costs by €91m a year by 2018, before updating them on the “proposals” for application delivery.

“Due to a significant reduction of the BA IT portfolio and a proposed new flexible applications sourcing model, the BA Management Committee has approved a proposal for a potential reduction of 200 positions by the end of December.

“All management and non-management BA grades in Group IT Applications Delivery in both Heathrow and Newcastle are in scope and therefore at risk of redundancy,” stated Francis.

The selection criteria was based on performance, grade and business requirement, and this will be consulted with trade unions.

Anyone promoted in the last two years is out of scope, as are apprentices, IT change managers, IT learning and development managers, principal architects and resource executives.

Francis said that following the reduction, the group IT applications delivery organ will be “aligned to the proposed new flexible applications sourcing model”.

The planned upheaval at BA was flagged some months ago by the GMB union, which warned the appointment of Indian titan Tata Consultancy Service signalled the start of big changes.

The union warned of “staged outsourcing” and that BA had applied for Tier One visa for Tata staff travelling to the UK to complete project work at Heathrow.

The hope among staff is that the trade unions manage to negotiate better terms for the outgoing staff.

Changes across other parts of the IT organisation are already understood to have taken place: around 80 Heathrow-based IT support lost their jobs at the start of this month and the roles moved to Tata, insiders have told us.

We have asked BA for additional comment on the IT support roles. ®

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