Hial air traffic workers to take industrial action

Air traffic control staff are to take industrial action over plans to centralise some air traffic control at Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd.

Hial has proposed controlling air traffic at five airports from a central hub.

The Prospect union said some members were unwilling to relocate, meaning nearly 50 could lose their jobs.

Prospect said the action starting on 4 January would be short of strike action.

It said its members would withdraw from any work related to Hial's plans.

Hial said it would continue its dialogue with the union and has denied it was proposing job cuts.

Under Hial's plan, air traffic control for Inverness, Sumburgh in Shetland, Dundee, Kirkwall in Orkney, and Stornoway in the Western Isles would be controlled centrally.

Unmanned towers would feed information to a hub in Inverness.

Prospect said its members believed Hial's plans would cost jobs and have a "devastating effect" on island communities by "reducing safety and damaging the economy".

The union has also accused Hial of a plan to downgrade air traffic control provision at Wick John O'Groats and and Benbecula.

Hial said its air traffic management system needed to be transformed to meet operational needs now and into the future.

It said digital tower technology had been operational since 2015 and was already being used, or in the process of being introduced, for Norwegian, Swedish, German, Dutch, Danish, Belgian, Irish and UK air traffic management.