London: Almost 600 ground handlers at London’s Gatwick Airport have suspended planned strikes during the summer rush after an improved pay offer, potentially averting mass disruption at the hub.
The DHL employees working under an EasyJet contract at Gatwick will no longer strike over the two successive weekends starting July 28 and August 4, the Unite union said in a statement on Tuesday. The workers will be balloted on the new offer and new strikes dates will be announced if they reject the deal.
The aviation industry is grappling with industrial action across Europe this summer as air traffic controllers and ground handlers threaten to walk out over working conditions. This has forced some airlines to cancel flights and rearrange schedules, affecting thousands of passengers.
More than 4,400 flights are scheduled to depart from Gatwick across the eight-day strike, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. If the labor action at Gatwick were to go ahead, more than 800,000 passengers could see their travel plans disrupted, Go.Compare data showed.
Unite said about 450 workers at Gatwick are still planning to walk out over the two weekends after they failed to reach an agreement with ground-handling companies ASC, Menzies Aviation and GGS.
An EasyJet spokesperson said the company was pleased the workers had called off the strikes, while Unite’s regional officer Dominic Rothwell described the suspension as “an act of good faith.”
