Border Force strikes to hit half-term holidays to France
FAMILIES returning from half-term trips through Dover face four days of strikes by Border Force staff in the latest round of their pay dispute with the Government.
Some 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union will strike from Feb 17 to Feb 20, just as thousands of holidaymakers are returning through Dover after the half-term break.
PCS staff will walk out in Calais, Coquelles and Dunkirk, where passports are checked by British Border Force officers under the juxtaposed controls, as well as Dover, where the outgoing checks are done by French staff.
Travel experts predicted there could be delays if the Home Office could not plug the gaps as the border controls at the French ports were “pinch points” where there are no E-gates and passports have to be checked manually by officers.
Ministers are planning to call up the military to cover for the striking Border Force staff in a repeat of the strategy that limited the impact of the PCS’S Christmas walk outs at Heathrow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester airports, as well as the port of Newhaven in East Sussex.
The Home Office deployed more than 600 military personnel supported by civil servants to successfully minimise the queues at the airports over Christmas and the new year.
It is understood that the Home Office plans to use the military to backfill jobs in the UK so that experienced Border Force staff can be transferred to cover in France, rather than deploying soldiers on foreign soil.
Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said: “The strikes we have announced today in the Border Force will impact on people returning from their holidays during the half term period.
“For while the Government brought untrained military personnel in to replace our highly skilled and experienced officers in airports over Christmas, they won’t be able to do that in France. The blame for these strikes lies firmly at the feet of ministers who are refusing to put any money on the table.”