The pilots' union SNPL France Alpa denounced this Thursday the "unacceptable practices" of "profiteers" seeking to impose lower wages on pilots, while air transport is going through a major crisis linked to the epidemic of Covid-19.
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"A questionnaire sent by a placement company (Brookfield aviation) in the midst of a crisis asked pilots what reductions in remuneration they were ready to accept in order to continue to exercise their profession" and "if they were ready to work for free" , outraged the union in a press release. Pilots need to fly regularly, at least on a simulator, to maintain the validity of their license, noted Olivier Rigazio, of the executive office of SNPL France Alpa, interviewed by AFP.
"We then thought we had hit rock bottom" but "another company succeeds in doing better in the inadmissible," denounced the SNPL by designating Buzz, one of the companies in the Ryanair group. "Its pilots are all under a 'contractor' status through an employment agency (Warsaw aviation), a practice known as' false self-employed 'considered at European level to be already more than questionable ,' he said. asserted. These pilots receive " a fixed minimum income calculated on the basis of an hourly remuneration grid based on the pilot's experience (...) From the start of the Covid crisis, pilots working for Warsaw aviation have been taxed , through blackmail at work, a reduction in their guaranteed minimum remuneration, between 10 and 20% ” , according to the union. "Without any prior consultation" , Warsaw aviation "decided to review, in a unilateral and unwritten manner, the experience criteria of the 'tariff' grid, thus causing a further reduction in remuneration, and this, with retroactive effect on several months, " continued the SNPL.
He protested against these "social dumping practices" and asked the government to "bring the voice of pilots to the European level so that the hiring of pilots under 'independent' status is prohibited ..." . "The use of bogus self-employed workers is growing among low-cost and charter companies , " Rigazio told AFP.
"Blackmail on dismissal"
While air transport is in crisis, "we are not against a drop in wages, but there the pilots are making the effort and the company does not commit to anything," he said. According to SNPL France Alpa, the management of Malta Air (Ryanair group), which operates for the Irish company in France, has announced that it will lower the remuneration of its 81 pilots over the next five years, otherwise it would lay off 23 of them. . The pilots refused but said they were open to negotiating a collective performance agreement (CPA) if there was “give and take” . Malta Air had also threatened to dismiss hostesses and stewards (PNC) if they did not accept a reduction in their remuneration, according to SNPNC-FO, majority at Ryanair in France. The union had denounced at the beginning of June "a blackmail to the dismissal" .
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The companies Air Caraïbes Atlantique and Frenchbee, owned by the Dubreuil group, have already signed APCs for their pilots, according to the SNPL, confirming information from Les Echos . They plan to maintain employment for one year for the first, and two years for the second, in return for lower wages. Collective performance agreements, made possible by ordinances reforming the 2017 Labor Code, aim to "preserve" or "develop" employment and allow for this to work hours or pay.