Security staff at Aberdeen Airport are set to walk out on Monday and on 14 days in July and August after pay talks with ICTS HBS Security failed. The action covers the majority of the baggage screening team and comes after negotiations through Acas did not produce a deal.
Unite said the workers will strike every second day throughout July and on 1 August, with the plan starting next week. That schedule gives the airport a prolonged period of risk rather than a single stop-start dispute, and it places the first test on Monday.
Paula Buchan on Aberdeen
Paula Buchan, Unite industrial officer, said: "Strike action will cause significant delays at Aberdeen Airport. ICTS still has time to return to talks with an offer workers can accept. A failure to do so will result in significant disruption at the airport."
She also said: "ICTS would rather cause massive disruption at the airport than work positively with Unite to resolve this dispute." Unite said ICTS HBS Security had failed to make an acceptable pay offer, while Sharon Graham said ICTS is a very profitable company that can easily afford to give members a decent pay increase. "ICTS is a very profitable company that can easily afford to give our members a decent pay increase. It has been caught red-handed putting profits before people," she said.
ICTS HBS Security talks
The dispute sits alongside two separate pay disputes at Aberdeen Airport that Unite said it had recently resolved, involving ICTS central search workers and Aberdeen Airport Limited employees. This round involves members of Unite employed by ICTS, and Unite says the baggage screening team makes up the majority of the airport group now heading into strike action.
For passengers and staff, the immediate issue is the first walkout on Monday, followed by the rest of the 14-day schedule across July and August. If ICTS HBS Security returns with an offer the workers can accept before then, the dispute can still be settled without the planned stoppages; if not, Unite says the delays at Aberdeen Airport will be significant.
