British Airways to suspend 30,000 staff after deal with unions

The deal means cabin crew, ground staff, engineers and head office employees will receive 80% of salary with no upper limit compared with a monthly ceiling of £2,500 under the government scheme, the Unite union said in a statement. Workers will be able to divert their pension contributions of 9% -18% into their pay for a "short period of time", it added.

IAG-owned BA also announced it was cutting services further by 90% per cent in April and May compared to last year.

The union said there would be no unpaid temporary lay offs or redundancies and the redundancy process that had already begun has been halted.

The airline has already reached agreement with its 4,000 pilots to take four weeks of unpaid leave in April and May.

IAG's other airlines have received support from similar job retention and wage support schemes for more than 17,000 employees in Spain and are seeking similar support in Ireland, the company said in a statement.

Unite national officer for aviation Oliver Richardson said: “Given the incredibly difficult circumstances that the entire aviation sector is facing this is as good a deal as possible for our members.

“The deal protects the jobs of BA staff and, as far as possible, also protects their pay. This is what can and should be done to protect workers during this unprecedented time for the airline sector.”