Redcoats plan 24-hour stoppage at Auckland Airport over pay

Strike action will hit Auckland Airport this week, with a group of service workers due to stop work for 24 hours on Friday.

The airport company says the travelling public are unlikely to notice any disruption as a result of the industrial action.

Some 71 members of the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union, most of them "redcoats" who help with customer service, are starting a ban on overtime from tomorrow, before walking off the job just after midnight on Friday.

They are angry at the company's offer of a 3.5 per cent pay rise, saying they should get at least 5 per cent.

Company chief executive Don Huse said it was offering a bonus scheme, with other benefits, which would cost it more than 5 per cent in the first year.

Contingency planning meant that the jobs normally done by the striking workers would be filled by other staff, he said.

The strikers also worked shifts, so the impact would be less than having 71 staff missing at one time.

Union national secretary Andrew Little described the 3.5 per cent pay offer as paltry and pointed to record profits being earned by the airport company.

"This company is awash with money," he said.

Mr Huse said the company would not negotiate under the threat of a strike.

Auckland International Airport Ltd has 300 employees.