HIAL meeting union in a bid to avert airport strike action

Senior officials from Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) are due to meet with representatives from the trade union Prospect today, Wednesday, in a bid to avert strike action at the group’s 11 airports, including Kirkwall.

Security staff working for Airport Management Services Ltd (AMSL), have voted to take industrial action for 48 hours starting at noon on April 7.

According to the union, in the six years since HIAL brought security in-house, management has failed to agree equal pay, holidays, and sick pay for AMSL’s airport security workers.

However, HIAL claim they have taken steps to improve pay, and terms and conditions, for Prospect’s members, including a 30 per cent basic pay rise over the past six years, and a new pension scheme.

They said that the union’s continued to push for a basic pay increase of five per cent is “wildly unrealistic”.