Charleroi Airport (BSCA) will close at 16:00 on Monday for departures due to a lack of available security staff for the rest of the day, said airport director Philippe Verdonck, on Monday afternoon.
Since Monday morning, the airport has had major disruptions caused by the walkout of the staff of the company Security Masters, which usually carries out passenger screening operations.
Since then, staff from rival Protection Unit company have been trying to make up for the absence of the staff.
However, they have not been able to prevent the screening lines from being clogged up and, as a result, the terminal from being overcrowded. Crowds gathered at the entrance of the terminal ha many passengers arriving too late to board their flights.
Although the airport will close at 16:00 on Monday, it will be ready to reopen on Tuesday morning, said Philippe Verdonck.
At the root of the discontent of the Security Master staff is the decision of the BSCA Security management to split the security package 1 (passenger screening) between two service providers and to recently launch a call for tenders in this respect.
The management of BSCA Security justifies this option by the desire to find continuity in the service, a continuity that is difficult, according to them, to achieve with a single operator.
For several weeks now, the staff of Security Master has been opposing this splitting of security services, seeing it as a competitive bidding process that could affect the working conditions and pay of the workers.
Furthermore, workers believe it may introduce, differences in treatment between the staff of the two expected service providers.
