GMB London campaign against £928.26 rise in Heathrow car park charges for airport workers
Heathrow Ltd have imposed the rise in their car parking charges for employees to go to work at the Airport from £686.21 per annum to a whopping extortionate £1,614.36 says GMB London
GMB London, the union for for Aviation workers at Heathrow , has been informed by companies operating at the Airport within the indirect supply chain that they will be passing on an additional £928.16 (135%) cost rise to their employees to those who have subsidised car park charges any to those that don’t. In some cases, workers who only pay a subsidised percentage to use the Heathrow car parking for work, will now have to pay the full charge.
GMB is launching a campaign about this as members are angry and in uproar that they will be hit in the pocket of having to fork out £135,53 per month from £57.18 to go to work at Heathrow. This is on top of Heathrow’s decision to suspend the public transport free travel zones around the Airport and discounted travel passes at the beginning of 2021.
Heathrow said, “Staff car parking has fixed costs which are largely outside of Heathrow’s control, for example business rent and business rates for parking. The airport covers a percentage of these costs and the rest is shared between pass holders. Any parking costs that are controllable we reduced as much as we possibly could last year to try to mitigate this price rise. However, despite these efforts, demand for passes was extremely low last year resulting in a £7 million shortfall between income and operating costs. This shortfall has unfortunately had to be factored into this year’s parking charges. Costs are also spread between the number of pass holders, and as this number is still low it means fewer colleagues are having to cover the cost of parking and the shortfall”.
In 2019 HAL state in their own financial report “Heathrow soared to the best year in its history welcoming a record 80.9 million passengers in 2019 (+1% vs 2018). The share of UK exports handled through Heathrow increased to 40%, strengthening our position as the UK’s biggest port.” Revenue £2,976m /Adjusted EBITDA £1,828m /Profit Before Tax £819m
Perry Phillips GMB Regional Organiser for Aviation at Heathrow supported by the GMBAviation Branch officers, said “ GMB London has launched a campaign over Heathrow Ltd imposing a rise in their car parking charges for employees to go to work at the Airport from £686.21 per annum to a whopping extortionate £1,614.36. This is an increase of £928.16 per year or 135% rise.
It is an absolute disgrace that HAL have taken this course of action and are penalising low paid workers who have supported them by securing or covid cleaning the Airport to keep the borders open and make travel as safe as possible during this difficult time.
Staff are already struggling to make ends meet having endured either reduced hours or furlough due to the lack of footfall during lockdown – They have definitely done their bit, but it seems to have gone unnoticed by HAL.
Our GMB Aviation branch has written to local MP’S and the leader of Hounslow Council for support in its campaign to get HAL to reconsider and stop its increase in car park chargesbeing passed on to workers at the Airport.
GMB are calling on HAL to do the right thing by revoking this unjust and unfair position that is again penalising workers in their pockets just for going to work”
Contact Perry Phillips – GMB Regional Organiser London Region - 07912293481 or GMB London press office 07921 289880.
