UK Border Agency staff in embassies across the world are being offered taxpayer-funded flights to Britain if they are willing to work at ports and airports in next week's strike against public sector pension reform.
Emails seen by the Guardian show the government has asked immigration officials from India, South Africa and Russia to return to the UK on Wednesday when thousands of their colleagues plan to take industrial action. Staff willing to return and cross a picket line would also be allowed to extend their stay to spend time with their families. The disclosure raises difficult questions for ministers on the use of taxpayers' money to help break a legal, union-backed strike.
Labour MPs expressed concern. David Winnick, a member of the home affairs committee, said: "Strike-breaking in any form is unacceptable and The government should be negotiating with the unions involved in a meaningful way." Khalid Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said: "The government has made unforgivable errors with the agency that stem from cuts in resources and have led to unsafe borders. And so to cover for a legitimate strike, they are proposing to spend some of the public money they cut flying in staff. It is an absurd situation."
On 30 November, a month before the deadline for a deal between the government and union leaders on pension reform, up to three million public sector workers are likely to strike. Around 18,000 immigration officials are believed to be among them. Many more agency staff are posted via the Foreign Office to embassies as entry clearance and visa officers on secondments of two or three years.
No comments:
Post a Comment