Bad if true. I know VS were in dire straits during COVID and BA (rightly) got panned for the way they forced the remaining cabin crew on the old legacy contracts to either go on Mixed Fleet terms or lose their jobs at the same time, but it's pretty poor to be treating long-serving staff like that.
It’s true and it’s out there. They claimed to be in dire straights to see what they could get from the government, whilst paying Shai Wiess the biggest salary any CEO has ever had in the airline business across the world, for this tiny airline, and paid him a huge bonus for getting rid of long standing loyal crew members who’d given their lives to making Virgin what it was. They’re begging for money and he takes a huge bonus, whilst getting rid of thousands and also enforcing 3 months of unpaid work on the crew. That’s right, they wanted them to do the work, but assumed everyone was so sucked into the cult that they’d do it for free.
So many people are blind to this company and the very ugly side of it.
Those flights are unsafe, there is zero experience on board anymore and that’s what virgin want, young crew that won’t challenge them and will be ‘grateful’ to work there and be promoted. But, they won’t have a clue how to manage when a fight breaks out on board, a fire, emergency landing etc.
Everything has gone downhill.
So many people are blind to this company and the very ugly side of it.
Those flights are unsafe, there is zero experience on board anymore and that’s what virgin want, young crew that won’t challenge them and will be ‘grateful’ to work there and be promoted. But, they won’t have a clue how to manage when a fight breaks out on board, a fire, emergency landing etc.
Everything has gone downhill.
I do not believe much of the above posts.
The highest ever airline CEO salary worldwide.
His bonus is unlikely to havre been for " getting rid of long standing loyal crew members", more likely for saving the airline and as part of his contract.
Stating that the flights are unsafe and that cabin crew are untrained in emergencies is pure fiction.
The highest ever airline CEO salary worldwide.
His bonus is unlikely to havre been for " getting rid of long standing loyal crew members", more likely for saving the airline and as part of his contract.
Stating that the flights are unsafe and that cabin crew are untrained in emergencies is pure fiction.
Shai took the biggest bonus of all European airline CEO’s during the pandemic, this has been reported previously.
Virgin have always made out that they are in dire straits they did the entire time I was there and that was over 21 years. They have money and did not need to get rid of all the people they did and there was no reason to not put everyone in a hold pool, the majority of people that never got the hold pool did not even have any sanctions on their record.
I still know people who work for Virgin, people that have been there a long time who say they worry more than ever about how crew would cope in an emergency situation, one person told me recently that she had to stop a 22 year old crew member from putting dry ice on a burn to cool it!
Crew there are now also scared to speak out because they worry about the consequences from the management team.
There is currently an internal investigation at Virgin involving 100 staff who have been suspended for being involved in a ring selling their staff travel concessions
The news report above doesn’t mention that there are also other large groups and other individuals that are in tribunal disputes with Virgin.
The 200 mentioned in the news report above all got made redundant using a points based system that was flawed, points were given due to customer feedback from flights, so for example if a customer gave a low score because they never got their first choice of meal, their IFE didn’t work, their baggage went missing or their J class seat wasn’t working that went against the onboard managers on the flight which contributed to their redundancy score. This was not applied to all ranks onboard.
Quite a lot of the senior management team who were involved in the redundancy process have since left the business since the large number of tribunals started to appear.
All is not rosy at Virgin far from it. The image they put out extremely is very different to the one that is actually happening internally. A lot of negative factors in the year Virgin are celebrating 40 years in business, it’s a shame that that got rid of some many crew who had been there for more than half of them.
Virgin have always made out that they are in dire straits they did the entire time I was there and that was over 21 years. They have money and did not need to get rid of all the people they did and there was no reason to not put everyone in a hold pool, the majority of people that never got the hold pool did not even have any sanctions on their record.
I still know people who work for Virgin, people that have been there a long time who say they worry more than ever about how crew would cope in an emergency situation, one person told me recently that she had to stop a 22 year old crew member from putting dry ice on a burn to cool it!
Crew there are now also scared to speak out because they worry about the consequences from the management team.
There is currently an internal investigation at Virgin involving 100 staff who have been suspended for being involved in a ring selling their staff travel concessions
The news report above doesn’t mention that there are also other large groups and other individuals that are in tribunal disputes with Virgin.
The 200 mentioned in the news report above all got made redundant using a points based system that was flawed, points were given due to customer feedback from flights, so for example if a customer gave a low score because they never got their first choice of meal, their IFE didn’t work, their baggage went missing or their J class seat wasn’t working that went against the onboard managers on the flight which contributed to their redundancy score. This was not applied to all ranks onboard.
Quite a lot of the senior management team who were involved in the redundancy process have since left the business since the large number of tribunals started to appear.
All is not rosy at Virgin far from it. The image they put out extremely is very different to the one that is actually happening internally. A lot of negative factors in the year Virgin are celebrating 40 years in business, it’s a shame that that got rid of some many crew who had been there for more than half of them.
In any company, when assessing staff for redundancy, the points system used should be quite different from that used for performance management. In the past I have had to tell staff they have been selected for redundancy just a few weeks after giving them "Very Good" (the 2nd highest rating) in their end-of-year review. You look at the current situation & the perceived future needs of the company. Are crew members actively seeking to learn new skills that will benefit the airline / themselves, or are they just along for the ride and expect "room service" all the time? You could have highly experienced staff who started with Virgin years ago full-time & have worked through the ranks but have reduced their flying to the bare minimum over the years - these will be relatively expensive to retain compared to newer hires.
Sure, performance should come into it, but only a factual basis. This would typically be disciplinary record over the past certain number of years, as there is little wriggle-room here, they either got a written warning or did not. Absence & sickness can be considered, but you have to be very careful if there is an underlying medical condition. Cabin Crew all have to pass an aviation medical, so this should weed out those before hiring with medical issues.
100 crew selling their staff travel concessions - I am sure this is expressly forbidden in the employment contract, so expect action to be taken.
Don't get me wrong, Virgin are not perfect. In flying with them for some 20+ years I have experienced some absolutely stellar crew, some average ones & some who needed a good boot up the backside. Same in most airlines, with the exception of Singapore Airlines.
Sure, performance should come into it, but only a factual basis. This would typically be disciplinary record over the past certain number of years, as there is little wriggle-room here, they either got a written warning or did not. Absence & sickness can be considered, but you have to be very careful if there is an underlying medical condition. Cabin Crew all have to pass an aviation medical, so this should weed out those before hiring with medical issues.
100 crew selling their staff travel concessions - I am sure this is expressly forbidden in the employment contract, so expect action to be taken.
Don't get me wrong, Virgin are not perfect. In flying with them for some 20+ years I have experienced some absolutely stellar crew, some average ones & some who needed a good boot up the backside. Same in most airlines, with the exception of Singapore Airlines.
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