Summer airport strike threat lifted with new pay deal

12 April 2012

A threatened walkout by workers at Heathrow and Stansted airports was called off when their pay offer from BAA was doubled to two per cent plus a £500 lump sum.

The deal, which still has to be voted on by thousands of security staff, engineers and fire fighters, was agreed in talks at Acas.

The Unite union said it had "delivered a fair offer for staff" at Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports.

The offer includes a two per cent increase on basic pay and allowances from January this year, arrangements for payment of shift pay during periods of sickness to remain unchanged, and a lump sum of £500, with £200 paid next month and the remainder next March.

Unite said the lump sum could reach £900 if performance targets are met.

National officers Brian Boyd and Brendan Gold said: "This offer is double what BAA had originally offered with no strings attached. Plus it comes with a guaranteed lump sum of £500. The negotiations were tough but Unite has delivered a fair offer for BAA staff.

"The game is up for employers in the aviation industry. With the recession receding in the industry, Unite now expects BAA's pay offer to set the standard."

The Acas talks followed a 3-1 vote by Unite members in favour of industrial action in protest at an original offer of a one per cent pay rise.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in