Around 1,400 Heathrow Airport security staff will strike for eight days in May.

The union Unite said officers will withdraw their labour over three periods – 4 to 6 May, 9 to 10 May and 25 to 27 May in a dispute over pay.

Unrest

It marks another wave of unrest in UK public services and commercial sectors.

It is not known if the Heathrow strike will lead to flight cancellations or if the shortfall in personnel can be made up in other ways.

It comes after members took strike action over the Easter holidays.

Analytics firm Cirium says on the days of the new planned strikes a total of 5,148 flights are scheduled to depart Britain’s busiest airport.

This means more than 1.1m seats, with over 2,000 scheduled to be operated by British Airways.

Passport Office staff are also set to strike for four days at the start of next month.

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) members will walk out from 2 to 6 May in a row over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and jobs.

This will affect all passport offices.

And, according to reports, senior civil servants could be the next to walk out after the FDA union announced a vote on industrial action. The dispute centres on pay.

The FDA, which has not gone on strike for more than 30 years, said its decision to have a ballot came after the government’s decision last week to award civil servants a pay rise of between 4.5% and 5%.

FDA general secretary Dave Penman said: “In my 23 years at the FDA and 10 years as general secretary, I have never found myself so utterly at a loss as to why the government would want to treat our members and the rest of the civil service in this way.”

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