About 4,000 London Heathrow airport workers are threatening to strike over Christmas after rejecting the airport's holiday pay offer.

Security staff, firefighters and engineers are among those affected.

 

About 94 per cent of Unite members voted to reject the airport company's latest offer and Unite now plans to ballot its membership on full industrial action. 

Unite regional coordinating officer Wayne King said: "We are disappointed that, despite many months of trying to settle this dispute, including at the conciliation service ACAS, HAL (Heathrow) has flatly rejected several of the union's reasonable proposals. This has left us with no option but to proceed to a full industrial action ballot now.

 

"Our members will not be bullied into accepting a shoddy offer that leaves them out of pocket. They work in safety critical roles, without them, air and groundside operations will grind to a halt."