Airport workers meet with MPs as Unite campaigns for airport bans for abusive passengers

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The union doesn’t believe the Aviation Bill currently going through Parliament goes far enough to protect workers from disruptive passengers.

The Bill proposes to give the Civil Aviation Authority the power to ban disruptive passengers across multiple airlines — but this only applies to abuse that happens on the plane itself.

The union wants such bans to be co-ordinated to ensure passengers can’t simply transfer to different airlines and airports, with minimum standards to be introduced across the industry.

Ground staff and cabin crew calling for a Worker Safety Charter to deal with the issue met with MPs at Newcastle Airport’s Hilton hotel today.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Abuse towards airport and aviation workers is not ‘part of the job,’ it is a workplace safety issue that affects workers both on the ground and in the air and ultimately puts other passengers at risk. All too often workers are being left in harmful positions while doing very difficult jobs.

“Airports and airlines need to up their game. They must make the safety of workers their top priority and work with Unite to stamp out workplace abuse once and for all. No worker should ever be put in dangerous situations for simply doing their job.”

A union survey found that 87 per cent of ground staff and 89 per cent of cabin crew had witnessed a colleague being abused.

More than seven in 10 ground staff and 60 per cent of cabin crew reported that management support was not adequate after experiencing abuse.

More than seven in 10 also reported abuse and harassment as a regular part of their working experience.

Nearly a third of ground staff and 42 per cent of cabin crew had been physically assaulted, with alcohol found to be the biggest trigger for abuse from passengers.

The Department for Transport said: “Any abuse of staff or passengers, whether on a flight or in the airport, is completely unacceptable.

“That’s why we are working with industry and trade unions to create a system for sharing information on persistently disruptive passengers, making disruptors easier to spot, keeping staff and passengers safer from the get-go.”