The British Airline Pilots’ Association has given notice to Bristow Helicopters that it will call on its members to strike in March.

BALPA has been in negotiation with the company for months, but Bristow has failed to put forward any offer that its pilots and tech crew could support.

Following a strong ballot result of members of BALPA, which returned a 96.31% YES vote on a 92.74% turnout, the pilots union has set several strike dates, starting on Sunday 3rd March.

BALPA GENERAL SECRETARY, AMY LEVERSIDGE SAID:

“Our members in Bristow Helicopters, have endured years of pay cuts and freezes and are now saying enough is enough. These pilots and technical crew (winch paramedics and winch operators), operate in some of the most treacherous conditions providing vital search and rescue services and transporting workers to the oil and gas rigs in the North Sea. They have remained loyal to Bristow in difficult times, and now the company is booming, and oil and gas is raking in unprecedented profits, it is wholly unreasonable to expect them to remain on austerity pay.

“Bristow’s management has failed to listen to employees and offer decent pay deal. We have repeatedly opened the door for them to come forward with a revised offer, but it just hasn’t come. We strongly urge Bristow to start listening to what their workers are telling them loud and clear- to get back to the bargaining table with BALPA with a fair and reasonable pay offer, to prevent further escalation in this dispute.”

Industrial action will be held between:

• Sunday 3rd – Tuesday 5th March
• Monday 11th – Wednesday 13th March
• Monday 18th – Wednesday 20th March
• Monday 25th – Wednesday 27th March

HeliHub.com approached Bristow Helicopters, and a spokeman advised:-

“We are disappointed by BALPA’s decision to move ahead with industrial action, which comes despite our ongoing participation in open and constructive discussions.

We have been working closely with our customers, partners and other key stakeholders over several weeks to develop detailed and comprehensive mitigation plans for our Offshore Energy Services and Search and Rescue operations in the event BALPA proceeds with strike action.

These plans will ensure our continued response to emergency taskings on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in our life-saving search and rescue function.

We will not allow any strike action to prevent us responding to urgent calls from people in need alongside our other partners across the UK.

We remain committed to the process of talks with the aim of finding a sustainable and fair agreement and avoiding the inevitable disruption caused by strike action.”

Further notes were provided as follows:

• Bristow listened to feedback from colleagues and the union and made an improved offer during negotiations facilitated with ACAS.
• Colleagues were not given an opportunity to vote on that offer before being balloted to participate in strike action.
• Bristow’s offer was aligned closely with market and equally with our competitors and was aligned with inflation.
• After rejecting the improved offer, BALPA did not put forward any new proposals or new offers in a bid to move negotiations forward.
• Staff have not been subject to pay cuts.
• Bristow is not an oil and gas operator. Oil and Gas industry profits are increasing but the supply chain, including Bristow, has not experienced the same sort of increase.