British Caledonian in The 1980s - Reorganisation and Beginning of A New Industrial Relations Era

Reorganisation and Beginning of A New Industrial Relations Era

During the early 1980s, BCal and its affiliated companies also adopted a new organisational structure to reflect the growth in the group's business and the diversification into new activities. Caledonian Aviation Group became the new holding company. It had an issued share capital of £20 million. Apart from the airline itself, its other subsidiaries included British Caledonian Aircraft Trading, British Caledonian Flight Training, British Caledonian Helicopters, Caledonian Airmotive, Caledonian Hotel Holdings and Caledonian Leisure Holdings.

In addition, this was the time BCal, which had always prided itself on its exemplary industrial relations record, began implementing a new co-operative, industrial relations strategy. The airline termed its new industrial relations strategy The Way Ahead. This strategy was designed to make the airline the most productive among its peers in Europe by redefining established working practices. Its aim was to achieve a significant reduction in labour costs through increased productivity, thereby putting the firm ahead of its rivals. It was hoped that this would ultimately translate into higher profits as well.

In a nutshell, the aforementioned strategy sought to gain acceptance among eligible BCal employees by offering them a higher basic rate of pay and a greater personal involvement in the management's decision-making process in return for forgoing their overtime pay and agreeing to new, more efficient working practices that resulted in increased labour productivity.

The successful implementation of the new industrial relations strategy in 1983 made BCal employees the highest paid airline staff in the UK at the time.