The agency is trying to take away the work life balance from an already overworked work force. One of the issues is removing the flexibility of swapping shifts with colleauges. This will now mean you have to keep to the rigidity of the rosta that you are given on a long term basis. As the airport is opened for almost 24 hrs, with an ever declining working condition.The morale of the workforce will be reduced further if this basic right will be stripped as well.

if that is the only reason for the dispute it seems a excessive response from the unions – why would the Agency not expect staff to stick to agreed working patterns (recognising in extreme circumstances managers would have discretion to make changes locally). It would not be common practice in other service sectors for staff to have a free for all shifting their schedules around without there being a significant level of management control and co-ordination. I work in a unionised service industry and we can keep resources optmised to the demands and good industrial relations at the same time because all employees (supervisors, frontline staff, etc) know what is expected of them and realise the customer ultimately should get the level of services they expect.