Industrial action dates announced for Glasgow Airport

24 May 2019, 12:41 | Updated: 24 May 2019, 12:42

Some staff at Glasgow Airport plan to take industrial action for two days in June in a row over pay and pensions.

The action has has been set for the 7th and the 10th June by Unite the Union.

At the beginning of April, hundreds of Unite members voted by 95 per cent for industrial action over a pay claim for 2019, and the proposals to close the final salary pension scheme.

Talks between bosses at the airport and union representatives called a halt to action planned in April, after a 3% pay offer was made but agreement on the pension scheme closing couldn't be reached in the latest negotiations. That means the union is now pushing ahead with plans for industrial action.

Pat McIlvogue, Unite regional industrial officer, said: "Unite entered talks with Glasgow Airport in good faith to try and resolve this dispute. On this basis we postponed our industrial action in April to allow talks to continue. However, while there has been movement on the pay offer for this year it was sabotaged with a bonus being potentially reduced. There has been no movement on the pension scheme proposals. AGS have closed the talks on pensions despite the Initial increased cost being reduced by a quarter of a million pounds from the employers initial estimate, and without exploring the counter proposals tabled by the Unite to reduce costs to maintain the scheme. The pension scheme is both affordable and sustainable.

"The company are insistent upon abolishing a scheme they agreed to only three years ago, while the boardroom enjoys pre-tax profits of £91 million. Our members deserve better! So, this is not about saving money, it is about attacking our members’ terms and conditions. Industrial action is now set for the summer period, and the blame for that lies fully with Glasgow Airport."

Industrial action by administration and Security staff has now been set for between 4am and 4pm on the 7th and 10th June.

A spokesperson for AGS Airports, which owns and managers Aberdeen International and Glasgow airports, said: "We are extremely disappointedthat the trade unions have served notice of industrial action. We have been in talks since January and, despite attending Acas, there has been no willingness whatsoever on the part of the unions to engage in a constructive negotiation.

"We made a significant improvement on our initial pay offer which was increased from 1.8% to 3% in line with their demands. This was rejectedby the trade unions without further consulting their members. In regards to our final salary pension scheme, it is simply unaffordable with the cost to the company due to rise to 24.7% per employee. We tabled a generous compensation package for the remainingmembers which again was rejected by unions without further consulting their members.

"As always, we remain open to continuing dialogue, however, we will now put our robust contingency plans in place to ensure it will be businessas usual at Aberdeen and Glasgow airports for our passengers and airlines on both Friday 7th and Monday 10th of June."