A former Gatwick Airport worker has told of reportedly gruelling conditions and daily abuse from the public that drove them to quit their job at the height of the summer holidays - leaving them unemployed. The London employee, who worked in special assistance for the firm Wilson James, says the airport has been 'out of control' since strict travel rules due to the pandemic were dropped in spring.
They said it's like being in a "prison" and the abuse hurled at them by passengers in the last few months drove them to the edge. "It's totally out of control," the ex-employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Mirror.
"It wasn't like this before - it is turning into some maniac place. Everybody has just gone totally mental. A lot of people are leaving because it's just not worth it anymore, it will drive you crazy." However Wilson James denies a high turnover, citing one per cent for June and July 2022.
Despite more than 300 workers at the airport benefiting from a 21 per cent pay rise in June following action by Unite union, this wasn't enough to keep the employee showing up for their job. As part of a team, they were responsible for assisting passengers with mobility issues through the airport.
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"The level of abuse from the public that has been reached lately, I would say in the last four months, has been absolutely ridiculous," they continued.
"I understand their point of view as well - they’re having to wait inside the plane for an hour, sometimes two hours.
"But then again, we didn’t have enough resources. There was not enough staff.
"They abuse you because you are the first person they see."
The ex-worker of the UK’s second largest airport argues the delays were so bad due to airlines scheduling too many flights and overselling tickets.
Their worst case of abuse came a few weeks ago when a flight arrived at Gatwick with more than 30 people needing assistance.
With just one other colleague at the scene, it meant passengers had to wait their turn for help - but one woman began screaming and shouting about the lengthy process and told the worker to "f**k off" multiple times.
The ex-employee says often members of the public would book assistance just so they could have their bags carried or they didn't want to walk the journey through the airport.
They highlighted a recent trend of passengers pretending to be disabled or injured to cut the queues - fueled by a TikTok trend condemned by the boss of Heathrow Airport.
"About a month ago people were pretending they were sick to get special assistance so they didn’t have to queue up," the worker added.
But due to demand and lack of resources, they say, the staffer was often put in difficult situations - where they claim controllers would request they abandoned passengers with special needs in the hope another member of staff would turn up, so they could get to another job.
The worker, who was on a shift pattern, claims colleagues wouldn't show up some days and call in sick because they'd had enough or sometimes simply walk out.
"The water filter in one of the crew rooms wasn't even replaced and some of them didn't have water machines at all," they continued, talking about the conditions on-site.
"They [Wilson James] give you a 30-minute break but when you’re having your meal, a job is already up on the screen.
"You've got a mouth full of food and you need to run to a job."
They added: "There is no care for the health and safety at the moment.
"The rules are really strict but no one is following them.
"And when you complain, they say you're making it up. You are just numbers there."
Their comments come amid shocking scenes at airports across the country in recent months - with passengers queuing for hours to get through security, having to dump their bags, and seeing their flights cancelled at the last minute.
It also follows research by job site CV-Library, published last month, that showed more than two in five airport workers are considering leaving the aviation industry.
The survey of 1,700 workers found reasons for wanting to quit included wanting better pay and less stress.
It came to a point for the Wilson James employee, who had been at the firm for a while, where they believed their pay wasn't worth the emotional and physical turmoil anymore.
"You had three or four days off after killing yourself for four or five days," the worker added.
"The pay rise definitely was not enough.
"When you’ve done so much for a company that doesn’t value your work and what you’re doing for them, it’s just not worth it anymore."
On the state of the industry as a whole, the former airport worker argues there is a vicious cycle that will only continue.
"They’re big corporations so they don’t care about it, they just want money," they added.
"People want to go on holidays still and people won't stop working because they need the money and people are getting poorer.
"It’s just a chain and it’s all wrong."
A Gatwick spokesperson said: "Following disruption at the airport earlier in the year, Gatwick took decisive action that has seen our airlines fly more realistic and reliable schedules over the summer holidays, to significantly reduce delays and cancellations.
"We take accessibility very seriously and we’ve made a range of improvements to help our passengers.
"These include providing extra resources, including Gatwick’s own staff to support our assistance provider Wilson James, and dedicated teams located in various areas of the airport so that we are able to provide a good standard of service every day."
A spokesman for Wilson James said: "Passengers that require assistance at London Gatwick Airport rely on Wilson James, so the well-being of our agents at the airport is therefore hugely important to us. As such, we are surprised by the comments of the former worker at Gatwick airport.
"Staff engagement is core to our business values, so in addition to routine operational and safety updates, Wilson James also undertakes a wide range of meetings to ensure staff are engaged and enfranchised to perform their jobs. There is daily communication with the team at Gatwick, with face-to-face engagement from the CEO down. Measures like these have helped ensure retention of Wilson James staff at Gatwick has always been well above the industrial average. For June and July 2022, staff turnover was only 1%, which is well below the industry standard.
"The recovery of the aviation sector following the pandemic is now constrained by the impact of the sector's job losses. For its part, Wilson James made use of the CJRS during Covid-19 to protect jobs and 389 staff were furloughed at the peak of the pandemic, in contrast to many aviation businesses that made widespread redundancies.
"Our team and the conditions they work in remain our highest priority. Recently, Wilson James worked with Unite to reach one of the most generous pay deals in aviation, with a significant pay increase. Airport infrastructure investment over the past three years has been suspended, and, as the sector recovers, so will investment in our team's facilities at Gatwick, which is managed on our behalf. Wilson James has also invested millions of pounds in vehicles and equipment and will continue to do so as we partner with Gatwick Airport towards 'Jet Zero'.
"We are disappointed to hear that the worker experienced abuse when doing their job as we view any abusive behaviour towards our people as unacceptable, although it is thankfully, very rare. Precisely 99.85% of the 883,365 passengers we assisted at London Heathrow, London Gatwick and London Luton airports during the first six months of the year had no cause for complaint.
"The provision of our services at UK airports like Gatwick is monitored by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), while airport operators measure the quality of the service we provide. Our collective performance at UK airports this year surpasses the CAA "Good" rating of 99% and is down to the excellent service our teams provide on the ground.
"At Wilson James, we believe air travel is for everyone, and our valued people are crucial to making that happen."
The Mirror approached TUI and EasyJet but they did not want to comment. BA and Wizz Air did not respond.
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