{"id":16489,"date":"2018-10-10T13:20:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T12:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16489"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:10","slug":"gatwick-airport-strikes-pay-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16489","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Massive&#8217; pay inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Gatwick Airport workers, who look after an estimated 670,000 passengers annually, many with disabilities, are being balloted for strike action in a row over a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098massive inequality\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in pay.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite has served a strike ballot notice and will start sending ballot papers for strike action to its 254 members employed by logistics giant Wilson James at Gatwick on Monday, October 15. The ballot closes on October 29.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The dispute centres on a demand for a \u00c2\u01411 an hour pay rise for the year starting April 1, 2018 to begin to bridge the gap with those airport staff pushing luggage trollies who earn significantly more than Wilson James staff. Those assisting disabled passengers are paid just \u00c2\u01418.27 per hour.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Wilson James assisted more than 56,000 passengers through the airport, which Unite calculates as a total of an estimated 670,000 a year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite regional officer Jamie Major said, &#8220;Our members take their responsibilities to the hundreds of thousands passengers they care for during their time at Gatwick very seriously &#8211; however, this blatant pay inequality can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t continue any longer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe calculate that our members look after 670,000 assisted passengers a year, many with disabilities, which is a big responsibility and should be valued appropriately by the employer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is no rhyme nor reason why pushing luggage is valued more than helping people \u00e2\u20ac\u201c perhaps, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because airlines can charge more for heavy luggage to increase profits.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt remains a mystery to our members. Gatwick Airport needs to get its priorities right, otherwise it will suffer huge reputational damage,&#8221; Major warned.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe current pay of \u00c2\u01418.27 an hour for our members is less than the voluntary UK living wage which is currently \u00c2\u01418.75 outside London \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the south east is one of the most expensive places to live in the country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf our members vote for strike action, this will adversely affect the Gatwick \u00e2\u20ac\u0098experience\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for disabled travellers in the run-up to the peak Christmas holiday season.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe wish to avoid any distress to disabled passengers and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we are asking Wilson James management to get around the table to negotiate constructively to resolve this dispute.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gatwick Airport workers, who look after an estimated 670,000 passengers annually, many with disabilities, are being balloted for strike action in a row over a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098massive inequality\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in pay. &nbsp; Unite has served a strike ballot notice and will start sending ballot papers for strike action to its 254 members employed by logistics giant Wilson [&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":[811,132],"wps_subtitle":"Gatwick Airport workers balloted for strikes in pay row","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16489"}],"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=16489"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25798,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16489\/revisions\/25798"}],"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=16489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}