Passengers hoping to fly out of Heathrow Airport this summer are being warned that a ‘mass exodus’ of security staff could lead to long queues and delays during the peak holiday getaway.
The warning came amidst a strike by more than 1,400 security staff at the airport, which, so far at least, has shown little sign of causing any disruption after Heathrow bosses called in office staff to backfill passenger-facing roles.
According to a new survey from the Unite union, one-third of Heathrow’s security workforce is planning to quit the airport in the next six months and around half of 750 workers who took part in the poll say they are unsure if they want to continue working at Heathrow.
One of the reasons why Heathrow faced massive delays at security checkpoints last summer was because it takes months to fully train a new recruit in the use of x-ray machines and other rigorous security rules.
“The treatment of security guards at Heathrow is leading to their mass exodus,” warned the Unite union’s general secretary Sharon Graham on Wednesday.
Graham called on security officers that cover Terminal 5 and campus checkpoints to go on strike from April 1 to April 14 in protest at a below-inflation pay offer from the airport.
Heathrow initially proposed a 10 per cent pay rise and sought to avoid a walkout at the eleventh hour with an additional one-off payment.
“Heathrow can well afford to put forward a satisfactory pay offer to our members and this survey clearly demonstrates that is in the airport’s interests to do so,” Graham said.
Along with poor pay, security officers said they were being pushed out of the job due to the nature of the constant shift work, and rising levels of passenger abuse.
