ID card triallists stay on the register

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Airside workers who take part in the upcoming ID card trials will have their details stored permanently on the National Identity Register (NIR) whether they wish it or not.

As part of the critical worker identity card scheme (CWIC), all airside workers at Manchester and London City airports will be issued with an identity card. The government has said the scheme will offer "obvious benefits" to both employers and employees at the airport. It will facilitate quicker pre-employment checks and enhance identity management around secure areas in the airport, according to the Identity and Passport Service (IPS).

But it has been revealed in a parliamentary written answer that airside workers at both airports, who will be issued with an ID card automatically, will have no choice over what happens to their personal data once the trial is complete. This also applies if they leave the job during the pilot.

"Identity cards issued to British citizens may be used for travel in Europe instead of a passport and will be valid for 10 years. Accordingly, the core identity information relating to all those issued with identity cards will be held securely on the National Identity Register and, in a similar way to information currently held for passport issue, would not be removed simply at the request of the card holder," the Home Office minister Phil Woolas said.

The British Airline Pilots' Association's (BALPA) general secretary, Jim McAuslan, said: "It is demonstrably unfair that the people of Manchester can choose whether or not they want the card while pilots and other airside workers are being forced to have one if they want to keep their jobs.

"Parliament was told by the government that the scheme would be voluntary. But pilots are told that if they have no ID card they will not be allowed airside and if they cannot get airside they cannot fly, and they lose their jobs. This is intolerable."

He added that BALPA would resist with "every lawful means at our disposal".