Gate Gourmet, caterer to British Airways, and its union said on Thursday staff had officially backed a plan to cut jobs, ending an industrial dispute at London's Heathrow Airport.
The Transport & General Workers Union (T&G) confirmed it had formally ratified a plan, agreed by workers at a mass meeting last week, to cut jobs at the caterer through a mix of forced and voluntary redundancies.
"The union has ratified the agreement," a T&G spokeswoman said.
Gate Gourmet said in a statement the next step was for British Airways to sign a new contract with the caterer. BA had previously agreed to extend its annual contract to 2010 if the industrial dispute was resolved. The US-based caterer sacked staff last month after they walked off the job in protest against the hiring of temporary seasonal workers.
That triggered a sympathy strike by British Airways workers at Heathrow, grounding flights and stranding more than 100,000 passengers during the peak holiday season at the world's third-biggest airport.