Air France wants to extend the use of short-time working (unions)

Air France wants to extend for three months the use of short-time work put in place at the end of March in the company, while the recovery in the air sector promises to be slow, AFP learned from union sources on Tuesday.

Read also: 9.6 million private sector workers are partially unemployed, announces Muriel Pénicaud

To respond to the collapse of air traffic due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the French company adopted on March 23 a device called partial activity, or partial unemployment, for a period of maximum six months. This measure was to concern on average 50% of the working time of its 45,000 employees, with a possible peak of 80%.

According to several union sources interviewed by AFP, Air France wishes to ask the State for the possibility of using this device over a longer period, of nine months maximum from the initial date, and that partial unemployment may concern up to '' on average 70% of working time. This request, raised during a social and economic committee (ESC) on Tuesday, must be presented by management to union organizations at a central ESC on Thursday.

About 9.6 million employees are currently partially unemployed in France, or nearly one in two private sector employees. This device, which requires the approval of the Ministry of Labor, allows the employee to be compensated up to 70% of gross salary and 84% of net salary.

" Increasing partial unemployment allows flexibility, " said Farid Slimani, assistant secretary general of Unsa-Air France Air France interviewed by AFP, referring to the " survival of the company ". SUD-Aérien asked for salary maintenance for the lowest incomes at Air France.

Wearing a mask

Another announcement from management, " the wearing of the protective mask recommended until today will become mandatory for all employees in contact with customers and for whom distancing would not be possible, " says Unsa-Aérien in a statement. " The compulsory wearing of a mask is obvious, " notes Jérôme Beaurain of SUD-Aérien, who regrets, however, the absence of FFP2 masks.

At the request of AFP, the management of Air France indicated that it is in the process of informing and consulting its employee representative bodies on these subjects.