Flights to the World Cup face the threat of disruption in a pay dispute involving ground staff at Heathrow.
More than 700 workers employed by dnata and Menzies are being balloted over pay from today (Wednesday), closing on November 2-3.
A vote in favour of strike action would see walkouts start in the middle of next month, just prior to the World Cup kicking off in Qatar.
The Unite union warned that Heathrow would face “severe disruption and delays”.
Qatar Airways, which has scheduled ten additional flights a week during the tournament, would be badly affected by any industrial action.
Other leading airlines to be hit by potential strike action include Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Emirates.
The workers involved are employed on contracts for the majority of airlines that operate from Terminals 2, 3 and 4 at the London hub. They undertake a variety of roles including ground-handling, airside transport and cargo.
The dispute has been prompted by offers on pay that amount to real pay cuts, according to Unite.
Both companies have offered pay increases that amount to pay cuts in real terms, the union claimed.
Dnata has offered its workers a five per cent increase, while the offers for Menzies workers vary between two and six per cent. All the offers are below the real rate of inflation (RPI), which currently stands at 12.3%.
Unite regional officer Kevin Hall said: “Strike action will inevitably cause severe disruption and delays across Heathrow, especially for football supporters travelling to the World Cup.
“However, this dispute is entirely of Dnata’s and Menzies’ own making and they know what to do to resolve this, which is to make our members a fair pay offer.”
The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Both dnata and Menzies can easily afford to make our members a fair pay offer and should do so. No matter how the employers present the offers on the table, they are substantial real-terms pay cuts and unacceptable to our members.”
The strike ballot was announced on the same day as the union called off industrial action by more than 50 American Airlines ground staff at Heathrow after securing an improved pay offer.
A dnata UK ground handling & cargo operations spokesperson said: “We can confirm that dnata airport operations employees, who are members of Unite the Union at London Heathrow, are being balloted for official industrial action. The ballot is over the company 2022/23 pay offer and the result will be known early November.
“dnata was the first ground services provider in the UK airport community to offer a pay rise to its staff in response to the cost-of-living crisis, with a 10% increase for all staff (14.7% for HGV drivers) in December 2021.
“We have now offered a further 5.5% increase backdated to 1 April 2022 and to date we are the only ground services provider at UK airports to offer pay increases which fully compensates the effects of inflation since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the total increase since December 2021 equating to 15.5% (20.2% for HGV drivers). We believe our offer is extremely competitive and further protects our employees as much as possible from the effects of increasing inflation.
“Further, the same offer has also been overwhelmingly accepted by dnata airport operations staff who are GMB Union members at London Heathrow and we are therefore very surprised and disappointed that Unite has chosen the path of potential industrial action whilst stating they will not enter into further discussions with the Company unless the offer starts at a 9% wage increase.
“Despite the ballot, we continue to proactively engage with our employees to discuss the value and benefits of our offer and we remain entirely open to negotiations with Unite with a view to reaching a mutually acceptable agreement that will avoid industrial action.”