Strike to go ahead as Norwich Airport fails to come up with sufficiently improved offer

Air traffic control staff working at Norwich Airport will press ahead with strike action on Friday (28 August) after Norwich Airport failed to come up with a sufficiently improved offer during negotiations. Prospect put the offer to members who rejected it comprehensively.

The staff, who are members of Prospect union, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay and conditions. Talks were held yesterday but the offer from the Airport still fell well short of demands making it impossible for a shift in Prospect’s position.

Air traffic control staff have already been taking action short of a strike including working strictly to contract, no non-contractually obligated overtime, no swapping shifts, and withdrawal of goodwill which has been blamed for closing the airport for a few hours at a time and the cancelation of some flights on Friday and over the weekend. In reality, these closures have been occurring regularly even when industrial action is not taking place and is caused by a chronic shortage of personnel.

Significant staff shortages caused the airport closure on Friday: there were staff in the tower, just not enough to open and operate safely. These recruitment problems are a direct result of the poor pay and conditions relative to the national norm.

David Avery, Prospect National Secretary, said:

“We have given Norwich Airport every opportunity to come to us with an acceptable offer that will close the pay and conditions gap with the rest of the country and help tackle the chronic staff shortages. While there has been some movement it is nowhere near enough to address the long-term staffing problems at the airport.

“As such we have no choice but to continue with strike action as planned.

“We appreciate that this will cause disruption for some passengers but when an employer treats staff with so little respect they have no option but to stick to their guns.

“Norwich Airport can avert further strike action but they have to give us an offer which is competitive with the rest of the country. We are no longer prepared to provide the goodwill upon which the airport has been operating.”