Head of Industrial Relations

Job Description:

Hours: 37.5, Monday to Friday

Location: Hybrid working 3 days a week in our VHQ, Crawley.

Contract: Permanent

Closing Date: Monday, 10th March 2025

In a nutshell

At Virgin Atlantic, we believe that everyone can take on the world, and its our vision to become the most loved travel company. As we embark on the next exciting stage of our journey, were harnessing our spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation to challenge the status quo. If youre ready to take your career to new heights, read on...

In this role as Head of Industrial Relations you’ll be the key point of contact for managing relationships with unions recognised in Virgin Atlantic Airways (VAA), including Unite and BALPA, and their local representatives. You will play a crucial role in defining and executing our Industrial Relations strategy, ensuring effective governance structures, and coordinating the companys response to new union engagements. Your responsibilities will include stakeholder management, negotiation of key initiatives, and ensuring compliance with industrial agreements and legislation.

Day to day

Lead and mentor internal teams as the go-to expert for industrial relations, proactively resolving issues and ensuring minimal disruption to operations.
Develop and execute the Industrial Relations strategy, working closely with stakeholders in People Relations and leaders of large work groups.
Coordinate and steer company negotiations for key initiatives, including pay and lifestyle agreements, and manage any failure to agree processes.
Maintain strong relationships with union representatives, ensuring ways of working meet expectations and governance structures are in place.
Stay up to date with industrial law and compliance, ensuring our practices reflect best practice in Industrial Relations management.
Partner with various departments, including Flight Operations, Cabin Crew Management, and Communications, to ensure alignment and effective communication.

About you

Do you have a strong background in Industrial Relations combined with excellent negotiation and relationship management skills? Can you work independently while influencing stakeholders at all levels? Then this could be the role for you!

Alongside the above, we’re looking for the following:

Excellent negotiation skills with experience in multi-faceted deals.
Strong relationship management skills, quickly engaging key stakeholders and gaining trust.
Ability to influence senior stakeholders, including the leadership team.
Strong leadership skills with the ability to think across multiple work groups simultaneously.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to present clear and concise storytelling.
Industry knowledge is advantageous but not essential.

Does the above sound like you? Then wed love to hear from you!

Our recipe for leadership

At Virgin Atlantic, our leaders empower teams to thrive through collaboration, innovation, and excellence. Explore our Leadership Recipe and discover the 20 core ingredients that define what it means to lead with us, driving our mission to be the most loved travel company and achieve sustainable profit. Want to learn more? Click here

Be yourself

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do our colleagues. That’s why we’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and actively encourage applications from all backgrounds. At Virgin Atlantic, we believe everyone can take on the world - no matter your age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, or beliefs. We celebrate difference and everything that makes our colleagues unique by upholding an inclusive environment in which we can all thrive. So that everyone at Virgin Atlantic can be themselves and know they belong.

To make your journey with us accessible and individual to you, we encourage you to let us know if you’d like a little extra help with your application, or if you have any individual requirements at any stage along your recruitment journey. We are here to support you, so please reach out to our team, (recruitmentfly.virgin.com) feeling confident that we’ve got your individual considerations covered.

Job Ident #: 2587

Company Details

Virgin Atlantic

Fleming Way
Crawley, England United Kingdom, International RH10 9DF International
www.virginatlantic.com/us/en

Virgin Atlantic uses a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing wide-body aircraft and operates to destinations in North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia from its main hub at London–Heathrow, and its secondary hub at Manchester

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Job Info

Location

Crawley , England, United Kingdom

Type

Permanent

Company Details

Virgin Atlantic

Fleming Way
Crawley, England United Kingdom, International RH10 9DF International
www.virginatlantic.com/us/en