The section of the Spanish Union of Airline Pilots (Sepla) in EasyJet will start a strike this Friday in three periods of 72 hours each, which will take place on August 12, 13 and 14, as well as on August 19, 20 and 21 of the same month and during 27, 28 and 29, “due to the company’s refusal to recover the working conditions that the pilots had before the pandemic, as well as to negotiate the second collective agreement,” reports the Europa Press agency.
“This is the only possible alternative for the pilots’ representatives, after more than six months of refusals by the company, which has rejected the three social proposals presented,” says the pilots’ union in a statement, which has requested apologies to the passengers, “the great harmed by this situation”.
The union has claimed “the good will” of the pilots during the negotiation of the collective agreement and has recalled that, during the worst months of the pandemic, they agreed to lower wages to “guarantee not only jobs, but the survival of the company itself in Spain”.
“However, having fulfilled the objective of reducing the working conditions of pilots, EasyJet announced an increase in the number of aircraft and pilots at its bases in Barcelona and Palma, and opened a completely new base in Malaga,” criticizes Sepla.
Recover pre-pandemic conditions
The pilots’ representatives have stressed that the number of flights “is, at present, very similar to that in 2019”, but the company “refuses to recover working conditions”. “We are not asking for anything that we did not have two years ago”, the spokespersons for the Sepla Trade Union Section at EasyJet reiterated in their statement.
According to the pilots, the negotiation of EasyJet’s second collective agreement concluded last July, “when the company refused to attend to any request from the pilots’ representatives” and presented a new proposal that “further cuts working conditions in real terms”.
“The companies are within their rights to recover muscle, but not at the expense of the workers; If the situation has returned to the levels of 2019, it is time to recover the conditions lost due to a matter of justice”, the Sepla spokespersons have indicated.
EasyJet operates with bases throughout Europe and has different types of employment contract in each country. The unions assure that “the conditions of the Spanish pilots have always been worse than those of the rest and they are seen even more degraded with the new proposal of the company”.
Minimum services
The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda has established minimum services for the strike of Spanish easyJet pilots of 57% for flights based in Palma de Mallorca, 60% for flights in Malaga and 61% for flights in Barcelona and Menorca, remember this Friday Europa Press.
According to the programming provided by the airline, all the flights scheduled for the days of the strike are international and the minimum services decreed are those that result from applying these percentages of protection to the public transport air services operated by the company with origin or destination in the airports of Malaga, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Menorca.
Also protected are those technical positioning operations and others such as the situation of crews necessary for the effective performance of air transport services considered essential, those operated in the periods between strike days and those after the end of the strike, and also those flights whose scheduled departure time was prior to the start of the strike and whose scheduled arrival occurs during the strike period.
Workers legally called to strike will be considered those who are assigned as a permanent base one of the work centers in which the strike is called, regardless of the place where they spend the night on the days of the strike call.
Regarding the list of specific flights affected by these minimum services, it is up to EasyJet to establish the flights subject to the percentages of the resolution of minimum services that have been described above, for which they must adopt the necessary measures to guarantee that they are provided.
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