Another blow to the suffering sector comes from the fact that nearly half of all British airport workers are seriously considering leaving the business.
After the pandemic’s massive layoffs, airlines have found it difficult to hire workers, and those that stayed are now searching elsewhere for positions that are better paid and more stable.
Two out of every five aviation workers, or 41.4% of those surveyed, indicated they were thinking about leaving the field, according to a survey of 1,700 airport employees conducted by the job search website CV-Library.
“With the industry in such disarray, it comes as no surprise that so many airport workers are considering leaving,” commented Lee Biggins, founder, and chief executive of CV-Library. “Attempts to turn things around have so far missed the mark and, with peak season now upon us, urgent action is required.”
A third of disgruntled workers (33.3 percent) claimed their job was too stressful for the amount they were being paid, while the majority of them (58.3 percent) stated they desired greater pay. One-fourth (24%) of respondents claimed that they were given more responsibilities than were appropriate for their pay grade.
An important airport official at Heathrow last week criticized airlines for failing to pay the market rate’ for in-demand airport workers including luggage handlers and check-in personnel. The troubled airport claimed that deep-seated cost-cutting by airlines was currently impeding the sector’s capacity to rebound.
The industry was further criticized on Friday as the largest union in Britain raised concerns about airline employees who were overtired and exhausted.
“Too many workers were cut during the pandemic and the reductions to pay and conditions for those that remained made the industry unattractive to new starters,” the Unite union’s national officer for the aviation sector, Oliver Richardson said.
“Sadly further disruption across the aviation sector is inevitable this summer,” Richardson warned.
Up until this point, businesses, including British Airways, pledged to considerably boost wage proposals, preventing a wave of threatened strike action by British airline workers.
