Passengers may face a summer time of journey chaos if Edinburgh Airport employees vote to take strike motion in a dispute over pay, a union has warned.
Unite stated it would poll round 275 employees on the airport on walkouts, together with members employed in safety, terminal operations and search areas.
The union claimed members’ pay has been reduce by round 10% in actual phrases over the past seven years, and stated employees are “prepared to fight for a better deal”.
Unite stated its members at Edinburgh Airport have rejected an inferior pay provide to 1 made to employees at Gatwick, the place a 12% enhance plus a £1,500 one-off money fee has been accepted by the workforce.
Edinburgh Airport stated it had supplied an 11% pay rise together with a £1,000 value of residing fee, which it described as “fair and competitive”.
But Unite common secretary Sharon Graham stated: “Unite’s members at Edinburgh Airport made huge sacrifices during the COVID pandemic.
“They agreed to reductions in pay and situations. The employees did all this whereas working across the clock to maintain the airport protected and working.
“The situation is entirely different now with passenger figures hitting over 11 million last year, and inflation stands at a 40-year high.
“Pay must sustain with the price of residing – easy.
“Edinburgh Airport bosses need to make a realistic pay offer to the staff if they are to avoid a summer of travel chaos.”
The Unite poll opens on Friday (5 May) and closes on 23 May.
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An Edinburgh Airport spokesperson stated: “It’s disappointing that we are in this situation despite meeting the request of our unions – an 11% pay rise along with a £1,000 cost of living payment.
“We consider it is a truthful and aggressive provide and one which was requested for by each of our recognised unions by our collective bargaining association. Both stated they might advocate the provide to members.
“One union saw overwhelming support for the agreed offer and we cannot understand why Unite campaigned against and rejected the very offer they asked us for.
“We have sought readability on Unite’s membership numbers given the tight nature of the outcome, the place the vote in opposition to was carried by lower than 1% of the membership, and now we have raised severe considerations in regards to the integrity of the poll and the variety of members that voted.
“We hope to resolve these issues at our scheduled Acas meeting to allow us to deliver the wage rise and cost of living payment that we want to pay our team.”
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On the comparability to Gatwick, the airport spokesperson added: “We appreciate that the offer being made at Gatwick is a good one, but if we really want to compare this to the offer being made at Edinburgh then it must be taken in context.
“Despite the challenges of COVID this would be the third pay rise given to the crew at Edinburgh Airport since 2020. This is the primary provide made by Gatwick in the identical timeframe.
“This means that the Edinburgh team would have received an overall pay increase of 19.6% over the same time.”
Content Source: information.sky.com