Those with travel plans over the festive period could see long delays and disruptions to their journeys as Border Force workers are set to vote on strike action.
The ISU, the Union for Borders, Immigration and Customs, is balloting its members for industrial action, including strike plans over Christmas and New Year, due to an ongoing pay dispute with the Home Office. The union has rejected a proposed 3% pay rise, calling it “completely unacceptable during the cost of living crisis”.
If the strike action goes ahead, this could spell long delays at airports and ports due to reduced staff at the borders. Imports of festive goods such as food and toys could also be impacted, The Express reports .
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Members of the ISU are seeking an 8% pay rise from the Home Office, with the union’s general secretary Mark Gribbin writing to members: “This Is now your chance to send the powerful message to the Home office that you will not stand for their pay failures any longer. You will no longer tolerate working so hard for such poor reward. You deliver for the country, the country needs to deliver for you.”
The general secretary added that the union was “deeply saddened and frustrated that things have reached this point”, but branded the Home Office’s stance on the dispute “unreasonable and disrespectful”, adding that the department’s pay offer was “deeply insulting”.
The proposed strikes at the UK’s borders would be the latest in a long line of industrial action taken by union workers across several sectors this year. Rail staff, Royal Mail workers, emergency call handlers and courts staff have all been among those walking out over pay disputes and working conditions in recent months.
Unison, the biggest NHS union, is also balloting 350,000 staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland over strike action. Meanwhile, teaching unions are being asked to vote on whether to take industrial action after being offered pay rises below current levels of inflation.
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