LONDON—British passport control staff are set to strike from Friday, becoming the latest government workers to seek wage rises that get closer to matching inflation, a sign that the economic and political turmoil that marked 2022 is far from over.
About 1,000 passport control workers are expected to walk out across six airports across the country between Dec. 23 and 26, and again between Dec. 28 to 31 in demands over wages amid rising inflation. The U.K. government is preparing to deploy the British military to help staff immigration counters and reduce the impact on arriving passengers, while Heathrow Airport has asked airlines to curb ticket sales during the strikes.
The airport turmoil is just the latest strike action to affect Britain, which is in the midst of the biggest series of industrial disputes for over a decade. Nurses, postal workers, ambulance paramedics and driving instructors are among those who have or will walk out on the job this week, arguing that pay rises haven’t come near to matching the 10.7% inflation rate.
Britons were warned this week by senior National Health Service officials and government ministers to avoid getting drunk or playing contact sports lest they need an ambulance. Train drivers are due to add to the transport chaos over the Christmas period by also striking.
The U.K. government says that paying its employees any more would risk prolonging the period of high inflation and make all workers poorer over the coming years.
“The best way to help them and everyone else in the country is for us to get a grip and reduce inflation as quickly as possible,” Prime Minister
Rishi Sunak
told lawmakers Tuesday.
However, workers in the private sector have seen their pay rise much faster than their government counterparts. According to the Office for National Statistics, private sector pay was 6.9% higher in the three months through October than a year earlier, while government pay was up just 2.7%.
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