Major European airlines, pilots and cabin crew organisations are joining forces to demand decent social standards and clear rules for the industry to abide by. The call comes when aviation stakeholders & decision-makers meet in Vienna for the high-level European Aviation Summit under the Austrian Presidency. Just a day before, several Transport Ministers urged the EU Commission to come up with concrete measures to achieve a ‘socially responsible connectivity’ and to ensure healthy and fair competition on Europe’s aviation market.
After years of operating in a Single Market with economic freedom but segmented labour law and social security systems, the evidence of detriment to the industry is mounting. Certain airlines are no longer competing based on services and products but on ‘engineering’ their social and employment practices. Crew are faced with deteriorating working conditions and precarious atypical contracts, as a result of ‘inventive’ employment set-ups that were born out of legal gaps and grey areas in the EU and national frameworks. However, the European ‘Social Agenda’ for aviation – promised since 2015 by the EU Commission as a countermeasure – has not taken much form or shape yet. In a joint statement airlines and employees therefore fill this gap by proposing several measures to be taken and call upon decision-makers to act swiftly.
Please read the ALPL Press Release (German)
