Security staff employed at Scotland's regional airports have voted overwhelmingly to accept an offer, which they say will end their six year battle for equality with other employees.
The publicly-owned Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) and the Prospect trade union had reached an agreement in principle last month following a long running dispute over pay and conditions for 160 security workers. It followed a 48 hour strike at Easter which closed Dundee Airport.
The union recommended its member accept HIAL's offer to harmonise their terms and conditions over the next 20 months.
The union's ballot closed at midday and Prospect members voted 95% in favour of the offer on a turnout of 74%.
Alan Denney, Prospect national secretary, said: "I am delighted that this dispute has finally been settled and that our members will in future be on an equal footing with their colleagues in the wider HIAL group. It is right that the vital task of keeping the public safe when they fly is properly recognised.
"I would like to thank members for their patience over six long years as well as the wider public for their support and understanding during the recent industrial action."
A HIAL spokesman said: "We are pleased that Prospect members have accepted the package of improvements proposed by HIAL.
"Notwithstanding that disruption was minimal, today's outcome is good news for staff and for passengers and means we can now focus on making this summer our busiest ever."
HIAL operates 11 Scottish airports: Dundee, Inverness, Wick, Campbeltown, Stornoway on Lewis, Benbecula, Barra, Islay, Wick, Kirkwall in Orkney and Sumburgh in Shetland.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article