Red Handling strike at London Gatwick suspended as Unite members vote on new terms offer

Over one hundred workers at Red Handling, who are members of Unite and work in areas including baggage handling, check-in and flight dispatching were set to walk out this Sunday (May 18) as well as May 25, but this has been postponed after Unite received proof of payment of pension contributions from Red Handling to provider Royal London.

Red Handling has also agreed to cover the loss of interest on any contributions that were not paid and there will be an independent audit to ensure the situation with missing pensions does not happen again.

Some Red Handling workers had also been paid wages late leaving them in financial difficulty – but the new offer would also mean Red Handling would have to give staff a bonus payment if payday was late.

Meanwhile, workers had also complained of overwork and not having rest breaks and under the new terms there will be guarantees around this, such as giving staff overtime pay.

Regional officer Ben Davis said: "Red Handling has returned to negotiations and made an improved offer and therefore Unite has suspended strike action to allow members to be balloted on the proposals.”

The first planned strike date last week, May 11, was postponed following negotiations between Unite and Red Handling.

The remaining day of strike action on June 1 is still due to go ahead pending the outcome of the ballot.

Meanwhile, separate strikes by refuellers at Gatwick, who work for a different company – Redline Oil Services Ltd – will go ahead after talks collapsed this week.

This will cause major disruption to easyJet flights as the budget airline is one of the firm's main clients, with further delays to flights expected on non-strike days due to the backlog of work created by industrial action.

Unite members at Redline will be taking action from tomorrow (May 16) until May 20 and from May 23 until May 27 after they unanimously rejected the company’s pay offer.