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After 30 years serving passengers, former British Airways cabin crew member Tess De Mello says losing her job left her feeling ashamed. Her story is at the heart of a British Airways cabin crew legal battle over pandemic-era dismissals and holiday pay, with possible effects on other airline workers.
De Mello saw the role as more than a job. She took pride in helping passengers and worried colleagues might think she had been dismissed for poor performance. “The shame stems from losing my job,” she said. The loss, she explained, felt personal.
What happened during the pandemic?
In 2020, Covid-19 battered air travel and British Airways began a major restructuring. The airline sent redundancy notices to almost all its 42,000 staff; about 10,000 eventually lost their jobs. MPs on the UK Parliament’s Transport Committee criticised BA’s approach to staffing changes, calling its conduct a “national disgrace”.
Cabin crew who stayed faced lower pay. BA told its longest-serving crew to expect a 20% cut to basic pay; the Unite union later said salaries fell by 15% to 35%.
De Mello said she wanted to stay. But after asking for clarity on her proposed salary and time to consider the terms, she was told she would be treated as if she had chosen to leave, according to documents in her unfair-dismissal case.
Why is the legal dispute continuing?
De Mello and a former colleague had made claims in 2025 to an employment tribunal in Reading that were connected to the dismissal process, but were unsuccessful. They are appealing. The newer claims “are without merit”, the tribunal said in a statement, while its actions were “fair and non-discriminatory”.
The pair are also contesting holiday pay with regard to part-time work. Cabin crew are frequently assigned extended days on, short days off, instead of lengthy weeks on/off. They say this may mean that they will be considered “part-year” workers, a category that was ruled on in a paid leave matter in a 2022 UK Supreme Court case. It was a school music teacher, but how it would be extended to airline employees is not known.
Why the case matters
That’s similar to what Unite mentions about shift patterns that occur throughout aviation. If the workers are successful, other cabin crew may follow suit and impose high costs on airlines. The question of appeal, and of the holiday pay, has yet to be resolved, and the workers have yet to win their case.
De Mello’s story is an illustration of the human impact of job losses: Joblessness can have long-term impacts on self-confidence and identity. The legal victory could help define pay rights, but in her case it’s also the end of 30 years of service.
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