{"id":14466,"date":"2018-01-23T15:03:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T15:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14466"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:59:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:59:11","slug":"pay-shambles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14466","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Pay shambles&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Bus drivers ferrying passengers to and from planes at Gatwick Airport started voting for strike action today (January 23) after their employer offered a 0 per cent pay increase.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite has today (January 23) begun balloting its members employed by Omni Serve who drive the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098airside\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 buses at Gatwick Airport. The ballot will close on Tuesday, February 6 and if members support industrial action, strikes could begin by the end of next month.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The workers have not received a pay increase for over three years. Negotiations for a pay increase for 2017 dragged on throughout last year with the company refusing to make an offer. An offer was finally made just before Christmas of a 0 per cent pay rise for 2017 and a below inflation increase of 2 per cent for 2018.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bManagers at Omni Serve are presiding over a pay shambles,&#8221; said Unite regional officer Jamie Major. &#8220;Workers are at the end of their tethers and have seen their wages cut in real terms year on year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members provide a key role at Gatwick airport and if they take strike action passengers face severe delays and flights could be cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSince Unite issued the notice to ballot, workers have been flocking to join the union,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Omni Serve has totally misunderstood workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 anger over the way they are being treated.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf Omni Serve seriously wants to avoid customer misery the company needs to return to the negotiating table and make a reasonable pay offer to our members.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last year, strike action on a separate Omni Serve contract at Gatwick involving baggage operators for Norwegian, dubbed \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bucks not burgers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 was narrowly avoided after the company made an eleventh hour pay offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bus drivers ferrying passengers to and from planes at Gatwick Airport started voting for strike action today (January 23) after their employer offered a 0 per cent pay increase. &nbsp; Unite has today (January 23) begun balloting its members employed by Omni Serve who drive the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098airside\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 buses at Gatwick Airport. The ballot will close [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[176,811,437],"wps_subtitle":"Gatwick bus drivers vote on strike action","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14466"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26449,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14466\/revisions\/26449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}