Travellers face delays with strikes under way across Australia’s eight worldwide airports.

“The Department has in place contingency arrangements to protect Australia’s borders and minimise impacts on the public and industry”, she told AAP.

The strikes affect airports and ports, cargo, container and mail.

However, Flood said the immigration and border force workers were being hit hardest.

Flood was in Sydney for this morning’s strike and said there were “considerable delays” but it wasn’t just airport passengers that would be affected.

“Border Force workers are calling on their managers to reject these nasty divide-and-rule tactics and to join the union so they can refuse to act as strike breakers”.

The union has been calling on the government for a fairer deal for workers for more than a year.

“This campaign will end when the Federal Government takes $8000 cuts to take-home pay off the table and works with us to find a sensible resolution to an 18-month bargaining dispute”.

Border Force Acting Deputy Commissioner of Operations Stephen Allen recommended passengers allow for extra time to check in. But they did add, “if you are going overseas, we advise you to arrive at the airport early”.

This latest disruption comes almost two months after thousands of DIBP and Department of Agriculture employees in the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) engaged in work stoppages at Australian airports and seaports to protest pay and working conditions.

Other commonwealth government agencies, including Centrelink, Medicare and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, are also set to take a half-day strike this Thursday.