Heathrow Airport outlines pay cuts as it warns of job losses
Heathrow Airport has opened talks with unions over a round of pay cuts that will affect roughly half of its 4,700 frontline workers.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the UK’s largest airport has lost over £1bn since March, and is now looking to make pay cuts of 15 to 20 per cent.
If an agreement cannot be reached with unions, there is a possibility that the airport will have to make some job cuts instead.
However, in a statement Heathrow confirmed that the offer would “guarantee a job” for anyone who wanted to stay at the airport.
Under the terms proposed, half of Heathrow’s frontline staff will see their pay stay the same or increase. It will also implement other initiatives such as a voluntary severance scheme, pay and recruitment freezes and salary cuts for those in management roles.
The airport said it had been talking to its unions for four months, with the final proposals informed by feedback from the negotiations.
In a statement, Heathrow said: “With air travel showing little sign of recovery, these discussions cannot go on indefinitely and we must act now to prevent our situation from worsening.
“We have now started a period of formal consultation with our Unions on our offer, which still guarantees a job at the airport for anyone who wishes to stay with our business.”
The consultation process comes with the airport already having cut a third of its managerial staff back in June.
At the time, the airport’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye warned that a third of all jobs at the airport could be lost due to the pandemic.
Speaking to City PM’s City View podcast, he warned that unless the aviation sector was able to get started again, 25,000 of the 76,000 people employed at Heathrow could end up out of work.
In August, passenger numbers for Heathrow were 82 per cent down on the same month last year, as carriers struggle against the government’s quarantine restrictions.
Last week, Gatwick Airport announced its own raft of job cuts, with a quarter of its 2,500 staff set to lose their jobs due to the downturn in air travel.