Olympic Border Strike Called Off After Ministers Promise 800 New Jobs

Olympic Border Strike Called Off At Last Minute

The planned one-day strike by immigration staff tomorrow has been called off, the PCS union said today.

A planned strike by Home Office staff including immigration officers in a row over jobs and pay has been called off after progress in peace talks.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union were due to stage a 24-hour walkout tomorrow, the eve of the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

The government had announced legal action to try to prevent the strike going ahead.

The union said 800 new jobs will be created in the Border Agency and 300 in passport offices, describing it as enough progress to suspend the strike.

Speaking to the BBC before the announcement on Wednesday morning, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said he hoped immigration workers would show up to work

"For an immigration officer - and I'm sure the vast majority of immigration officers feel this way - Thursday is one of the biggest days in their professional career," he said.

"It is the day when the eyes of the world will be upon them and the welcome we are giving to the rest of the world. The vast majority of them will want to do a really good job and show what they are capable of."

Hunt also said fears Heathrow would grind to a halt because of the extra passengers had so far failed to materialise, and he hailed the situation at the hub airport as "a tremendous success".

He refused to criticise G4S guards, turning his fire on the company's executives who failed to honour their contract to supply thousands of security staff to protect the Games.

"We were very angry with G4S management but not with the G4S workers," he said.

"I just think it's really important we don't demonise them, because they are part of the mix."

The government yesterday ordered another 1,200 troops to mobilise before the Olympics, with the culture secretary today insisting: "We just didn't want to leave anything to chance."