No to abuse policy downgrade

The general GMB union threatened to ballot its members working for Swissport at Stansted airport after the downgrading of a “non-abuse of staff by passengers” policy.

The union says that posters at the airport stating that “assault or any form of abuse verbal or physical will not be tolerated and could lead to you not boarding your flight or removal from the airport” were removed by Swissport managers.

It says that Ryanair’s £35 charge for passengers with more than one piece of hand luggage, known as “gate bags”, is a particular flashpoint as passengers who refuse to pay the £35 charge and are ‘offloaded’ from the flight are sometimes abusive to ground staff.

GMB organiser at Stansted, Gary Pearce, said: “While other employers are moving increasingly to zero tolerance policy on the abuse of their staff, Swissport is moving away from zero tolerance and saying to angry or frustrated passengers, annoyed by Ryanair’s “gate bags” policy, that it is OK to verbally abuse the staff.

The GMB believe that passengers who verbally abuse a member of staff should not be allowed to fly.”