Union announces industrial action over HIAL’s air traffic control plans

Prospect, which represents air traffic control staff and others in Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd, has announced that its members are to take industrial action over the company’s remote towers plan.

But Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd has hit back, saying the action will affect communities already impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Porspect says that unless HIAL changes tack nearly 50 staff will be made redundant with HIAL needing to recruit a similar number in Inverness at very significant expense to the taxpayer.

Industrial action is planned to commence on January 4 and 5, and will initially consist of the withdrawal of any work relating to the remote towers plan and the closure of local air traffic facilities.

Prospect’s ballot of members in HIAL closed last week with a significant vote in favour of both action short of a strike and strike action.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, which has decimated the aviation industry, Prospect says its members have decided not to take either strike action, or action short of a strike which would cause disruption to travellers or local economies at this time.

David Avery, Prospect negotiator, said: “Prospect have presented a raft of evidence against remote towers, including an independent report into its viability but HIAL are pressing on regardless. Our members are not against change but this is the wrong plan and at a time when aviation is being decimated by the pandemic there are better things to spend taxpayers’ money on.

“Our members, working in safety critical roles, are being asked to give their time to develop a project which they don’t want, which is reduces safety, which will remove substantial money from local economies, and will make them redundant. Withdrawing cooperation from this project is the best way for our members to take industrial action without further impacting the communities they serve.

“HIAL and the Scottish Government have the opportunity to think again, cancel this harmful project and come up with an acceptable way to modernise services.”

HIAL has responded by stating that the fundamental purpose of any air traffic control operation was safety. New technology was improving the resilience of air traffic management systems around the world and it was acting now to modernise its operations to ensure they were safe and sustainable for decades to come.

It insisted that if it did not do this, it could not guarantee services in the future.

A spokesman said: “HIAL operates in highly regulated environment and the Civil Aviation Authority, as industry regulator, would not permit any development which compromised safety.

“This investment in a new operating model is absolutely critical to a viable future for our network and the lifeline transport services and communities that rely upon them. The current pandemic has underlined the critical role of HIAL’s airports in connecting our communities, but is has also highlighted the fragility and lack of resilience in our current air traffic delivery model.

“HIAL operates a no-compulsory redundancy policy, yet Prospect continue to sensationalise the situation claiming that 50 staff will be made redundant. This is simply not the case. We have also offered an evidence-led rebuttal of the inaccuracies in the Prospect report, and we are disappointed that this has not been recognised.

“We absolutely understand the personal impact on those affected. Our first facilitated meeting with Prospect and ACAS took place on 16 December. We will continue dialogue with Prospect and have meetings scheduled in the new year to review and agree various policies to support our air traffic colleagues during this transition.

“Prospect has advised that it is limiting its action at this time. However, any future industrial action of any kind will directly affect our passengers, as well as the communities we serve and our airlines, both already significantly impacted by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.”