Newham Mayor and Councillors Raise Serious Concerns About London City Airport’s Employment Practices

UNITED KINGDOM / AGILITYPR.NEWS / November 20, 2020 / Unite, the UK’s principal aviation union, has warmly welcomed the intervention of mayor of Newham Rokshana Fiaz and her fellow Labour councillors over concerns about employment irregularities and mistreatment of staff at London City Airport.

•  Last week Unite raised a host of concerns about the way that the workforce at City Airport, which is located in the London borough of Newham is treated, including:The lack of a fair and transparent system for undertaking its current redundancy programme
• Concerns that long-term employees and union members were being unfairly selected for redundancy
• The failure to halt the redundancy programme and furlough workers following the extension of the job redundancy scheme until the end of March 2021
• Using the job retention scheme (JRS) to prevent potential employment tribunal claims
• Incorrectly paying notice pay when workers are made redundant.

 In their letter to Robert Sinclair chief executive of London City Airport mayor Fiaz and the Labour councillors amplify Unite’s concerns and demand urgent answers, with regards to the refusal to have a transparent redundancy process and the refusal to provide this information on the process to Unite. The letter says. “This is an extraordinary practice by you and your management team.”

In a further shot across the bows of city airport, they then add: “Please provide urgent clarification on these matters, and we trust that you will positively respond to the remedies proposed by the Unite union by enacting them swiftly. This would be a clear demonstration that you have a proper regard for the rights of workers.”

Unite regional officer Mercedes Sanchez said: “The support from mayor Fiaz and the Newham Labour group are greatly appreciated and demonstrates the rapidly growing local concerns about the actions of City Airport.

“It is to be hoped that senior management take heed of the growing disquiet about their actions and actively engage with Unite to ensure that workers are treated fairly during the redundancy process and their basic rights are not diminished. 

 “If City Airport does not take account of this letter and does not alter its procedures then Unite will be forced to consider all legal and industrial options to defend its members.”

Notes:

During the coronavirus crisis Unite is working to keep workers and the public safe, to defend jobs and to protect incomes.