Olympics: ministers 'discussed sacking' striking UK Border Agency staff

Culture secretary said questions had been raised about whether to fire workers threatening to strike on eve of London 2012

UK Border Agency staff are among thousands of PCS union members who have balloted to strike on 26 July.

Ministers have discussed sacking UK Border Agency staff threatening to strike ahead of the Olympics, Jeremy Hunt has said.
The culture secretary insisted he did not want to "escalate" the row ahead of the planned walkout of immigration workers, but said questions about their employment had been raised.
Thousands of staff at the Home Office, including the UKBA workers, are to strike for 24 hours the day before the Olympic opening ceremony in a row over jobs, pay and other issues.
The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said its members would walk out on 26 July and would take other forms of industrial action, such as a refusal to do overtime, from 27 July to 20 August.
Hunt told Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek: "We have a contingency plan in place and I am absolutely confident that we will get everyone into the country. They're not going to stop anyone getting in and this is not the time to be pursuing this kind of dispute.
"Sack them? That is the Ronald Reagan approach and I can tell you amongst ministers there have been people asking whether we should be doing that, but I don't want to escalate things by talking about that right now, because I know amongst those 600 people there are lots of people who want to do the right thing and turn up for work."
The union said it would announce further action if ministers continued to "refuse" to negotiate an agreement, warning that job and spending cuts were hitting services to the public.
The strike will involve staff across the Home Office, including the UK Border Agency, the Identity and Passport Service and Criminal Records Bureau.
Union officials said a work-to-rule and overtime ban could have a big impact on border controls and in passport offices because of the amount of overtime worked.
The PCS is in dispute with the Home Office on several issues, including plans to cut 8,500 jobs, the threat of compulsory redundancies in the passport office in Newport, south Wales, pay rises capped at 1% following a two-year wage freeze, privatisation of services, and alleged victimisation of union representatives.