Heathrow strike suspended for vote on pay offer
A planned strike by thousands of workers at Heathrow Airport has been suspended while they vote on the latest pay offer.
Flights had been expected to face disruption at Britain’s biggest airport during the industrial action on the Friday and Saturday of the August bank holiday weekend.
The Unite union confirmed that a ballot is underway on the revised pay offer, made by Heathrow to more than 4,000 security, airside operations and passenger services staff.
The vote closes on September 2, and the union said the strike “has been suspended to allow the ballot to take place”.
A Heathrow spokesman said: “We’re pleased that Unite has postponed the strike action scheduled for August 23 and 24 to give union members the time to consider our revised offer.
“We have put an additional £2.5 million on the table since talks began, with our current offer bringing the total pay rise to 7.8% over two years for all frontline colleagues.
“This is well above RPI (inflation), higher than any other UK airport and helps to provide long-term wage certainty and job security.
“Heathrow has a duty to ensure the business is sustainable – particularly against the backdrop of increasing economic uncertainty facing the UK in the immediate future."
“The pay offer we have put on the table achieves that, in addition to being rewarding and fair to all colleagues.”
It comes after another strike date was suspended earlier this month to allow for a vote by workers on a previous pay offer.
