Electricians to finish T5 by this Christmas

An 80-strong gang of electricians will be carrying out finishing work at Heathrow's T5 until Christmas.

BAA has agreed a deal with the Unite union and Spie Matthew Hall for an M&E team to finish off work until December.

CJ understands that the workers are not operating under the pioneering T5 agreement.

A union source said: "There has been some debate about the terms - the lads wanted to stay on the T5 agreement but that won't be the case so they won't be getting the extra £4.50-an-hour paid during the main construction phase."

T5 officially opened in March when it was dogged by a series of baggage handling disasters and cancelled flights.

The union source said: "The lads will be doing finishing work - it's not a question of carrying out maintenance. It's a huge job so there were always going to be a few things to sort out even after the opening."

A BAA spokeswoman said: "The Spie Matthew Hall team will be carrying out the standard post-opening work associated with a project of this size and complexity."

The next major construction project planned at the airport is the £1.5bn Heathrow East project.

CJ revealed last month that building work on the scheme could now be delayed by up to a year. The hold-up is being blamed on the chaos surrounding T5's opening and the knock-on effect it had on BA's plans to relocate all of its flights into the new terminal.

BA was due to move all of its flights into T5 in March but will not now complete the task until October.

The Heathrow East project involves demolition of the T1 and T2 buildings and their replacement with a new terminal.