Civilian workers at Yorkshire Royal Air Force base begin industrial action

A union says fighter jet training flights at North Yorkshire’s RAF Leeming face being grounded during industrial action by Babcock workers at the airbase, over an annual £5,000 shift pay disparity.

The warning has come from trade union Unite. It says around 40 Babcock Aerospace staff, who provide operational and engineering services for aircraft at RAF Leeming, including the Hawk trainer aircraft, will today begin three weeks of discontinuous strike action as well as a continuous overtime ban.

Babcock has said today that it does not expect the dispute will impact “delivery of services” at the air base.

Unite says its members voted in favour of strike action after being refused shift pay, even though their colleagues at RAF Valley in Wales receive it for performing the same duties.

It says the difference in take home wages between those who receive shift pay and those who do not amounts to around £5,000 a year.

Unite said the workers do not want to take strike action but have been forced to over Babcock’s “outright refusal to treat them on an equal footing with the company’s other workers”.

Unite regional officer Neil Howells said: “Disrupting the important work that goes on at RAF Leeming is the last thing our members want to do.

“Unfortunately, Babcock Aerospace has left its staff with no other choice by their outright refusal to treat them on an equal footing with the company’s other workers.

“Compared to their colleagues at RAF Valley, who receive shift pay for the same duties, Babcock’s RAF Leeming staff take home around £5,000 a year less.

“This is no way to treat a skilled and dedicated workforce and any resulting disruption to training flights will be entirely the fault of Babcock’s intransigence towards ending a clearly unfair pay disparity.

“Unite’s door is always open. We urge Babcock to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible with an offer our members can accept, so that further industrial action can be avoided and operations return to normal.”

A spokesman for Babcock responded: “This action is disappointing, however we do not anticipate any impact to the delivery of services at RAF Leeming and we continue to work with the union towards a resolution.”