Heathrow security officers have won an improved pay offer from Heathrow Airports Ltd (HAL) after voting by a majority of 85 per cent for strike action. The strikes, due to begin on 24 and 25 June, have now been postponed as a gesture of goodwill while the workers are balloted on the offer.
If they reject the offer then the remaining 29 days of planned strike action will be spread across the summer, beginning before the end of June.
Industrial action had already begun at Terminal 5 and Campus Security (officers who check all workers and vehicles entering the airport). Only after those at Terminal 3 voted to join the action, bringing the number involved to over 2,000, did the company finally come up with an improved offer.
The company fired and rehired its entire workforce during the Covid pandemic in 2020, while awarding its chief executive John Holland-Kaye a rise of 88 per cent and is now paying out over £1 billion to shareholders in the next few years.