Heathrow Airport users could be in for even more chaos at the airport, as British Airways check-in staff are mulling over a strike.
Unite, the check-in staff’s union, contends that the workers concerned had had a 10% pay cut imposed on them during the pandemic but management has refused to reverse this, despite having restored their own pay to pre-pandemic levels.
The union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: "British Airways used the cover of COVID to brutally cut members' pay. BA has now reversed the pay cuts imposed on management but refuses to do this for our members. This is disgraceful. Unite will not allow our members to be treated as a second-class workforce."
A spokesperson for BA told British press: "After a deeply difficult two years which saw the airline lose more than £4bn, these colleagues were offered a 10% payment for this year which was rejected…Other parts of the organisation accepted the same offer acknowledging the position the business still finds itself in.”
The industrial action ballot, covering about 500 staff, will open on June 7 and close on June 27. If workers approve a strike, the most likely time it will occur is in July, during the highest peak of the British summer holiday season.
It is understood that BA has contingency plans in place in the event of the workers deciding to strike, and that they represent less than 50% of BA's customer service team at Heathrow.