This is an update on the Delegation Elections 2013 and Part Time contracts.
Delegation
As already communicated to you earlier this month, we were able to obtain the court victory regarding the ongoing issue of the delegation election contestation by one member of the OGB-L in 2013. We were successful in obtaining an injunction against David Massaro ordering him to convene the “newly” elected delegation within 15 working days.
In the same context we also received an answer from the ITM (Inspection du Travail et des Mines). On Tuesday, 25 April 1017 a meeting with the ITM was held to hear arguments pertaining to a “recours” that was filed, once again with the aim of delaying the delegation members that were elected in 2013. In short; This “recours” was rejected by the ITM.
Hence, with no more options left, David Massaro did invite the newly elected delegates to a meeting on 12 June 2017 in order to constitute the new staff delegation.
In conclusion it is fair to say that this entire affair is a good example to show that persistence and patience does pay off in the end.
Part Time
It was brought to our attention that management has tried to use the implementation of Part-Time to introduce a certain clause into the Part-Time contract, which is not in line with the current CWA and contradictory to binding EU legislation. Furthermore, these changes have been added at a later stage and were not discussed with Pilot Representatives when the contracts were initially discussed last year.
In Article 4 Varia of the “AMENDMENT TO CREW EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT” it states now:
“The Employee hereby agrees to hold a license with privileges needed to operate as a pilot for Cargolux issued by the Direction de l’aviation civile (DACL), or another competent authority if specifically requested by Cargolux. The Employee is responsible for ensuring that his license and the qualifications therein are revalidated in a timely fashion so as to not disrupt his availability for flying duties.”
In fact this clause forces a pilot to either obtain a license issued in Luxembourg or any other license they deem necessary.
We strongly believe that this practice is not only unethical and not in line with negotiating in good faith but we also think that these clauses potentially severely disadvantage the pilot willing to opt for a Part-Time contract.
We therefore advise our members for the time being not to accept any alterations of their contracts and not to sign these modified conditions.
Please remember that the company also denies pilots a return clause from Part-Time, which means that a pilot signing a new contract will be effectively stuck with this further deterioration of his or her working conditions.
We would also like to emphasize that any flight crew license issued in accordance with EASA Part FCL by any competent authority qualifies to operate Cargolux aircraft. The license is the sole property of the individual pilot and management has no right to force somebody to transfer his or her license to the DAC-L as issuing authority, to any other authority nor into a non-EASA license. Should you feel more comfortable to hold an EASA Part FCL license issued by another competent authority than the DAC-L, it is your right to keep it or to transfer your license to any other competent authority of an “EASA member state”.
We are closely monitoring the situation and will advise you as soon as management reconsiders this new practice.
