The Civil Aviation Pilots Union (SPAC) accused TAP on Monday of “manipulation and propaganda” and guaranteed that it would activate “all legal mechanisms” to challenge what they say is being “non-compliance”.
In an internal communication to the associated pilots, to which Lusa had access, SPAC begins by stating that “if TAP’s management capacity equaled at least the ability to manipulate information and propaganda, TAP would be very well delivered, but unfortunately it is not. ”. .
“It even looks like a political party campaign, but this time, and once again, those who suffer are all the workersand in this particular case and without possible comparison with the other professional classes”, add the pilots.
This Sunday, TAP announced that it will reduce by 10% the cut that pilots have suffered in salaries and will increase the level from which it will apply reductions in the salaries of the rest of the workers.
In the statement, SPAC highlighted what it considers the “sins” of the company, which include issues it has criticized in the past, such as the detention of cargo planes for lack of certification, the change of facilities, the use of smaller planes of Embraer and the service provision contracts, or ACMI, to overcome difficulties in the operation.
In addition, he indicated, “suggests that the cuts are less than the emergency agreements when in reality, taking into account the seven percent (7%) salary cut in annuities and seniority, the suppression of the 2020 inflation rate and 2021, plus the value of the parking, are in fact much higher” and “now assumes the payment of the supplemental meal allowance (also known as landing fee), but only retroactively to January 2022, when fails to comply with this payment since the signing of the Emergency Temporary Agreement“, highlighted the SPAC.
According to the same note, “no paragraph of the Emergency Temporary Agreement states that the complementary cut is to guarantee something more than job protection, and therefore, given that there is no need for job protection because there are surplus pilots, there does not have to be an additional salary cut, ”guaranteed the union.
Regarding management, the union structure said that TAP “is increasing its executive staff, bringing foreign managers to Portugal at expatriate prices and conditions, increasing the weight of the structure in the absence of a restructuring plan that is said to guarantee a sustainable future of the company”, and adds that “the management team is only doing everything possible so that the pilots continue to subsidize, with cuts in their salaries, these and other management errors that they wanted to adapt to the demanding challenges of the ultra-competitive market. of the company. aviation”.
For all these reasons, the management of the SPAC will request “the appointment, as soon as possible, of a Company Assembly and from which nothing else can come out other than a collective action measure”. that shows that the problem was never the pilotswho accepted a reduction of more than 50% of their salary, but the successive harmful actions of the company” which, they add, brought the company to where it is today.
At the same time, we will activate all legal mechanisms in defense of what we believe is being breached by the company. It is time to say ‘no’ to the arrogance and impunity of those who manage us”, he concluded.
In a message sent to the workers and to which the Lusa agency had access this Sunday, TAP stressed that “the current salary cuts are a commitment of all during the validity of the recovery plan” and that “they cannot be changed simply because the volume of business increases”.
And he added that, “in addition, one of the main objectives defined for these cuts was to be able to adopt a guaranteed minimum wage to which no cuts would be applied.”
“The application of this minimum guarantee implies that the effective cuts are not 25%, but vary on average between 12 and 15%“, the letter said.
As a result of an “open and continuous dialogue, it was decided to update the guaranteed minimum wage from 1,330 euros to 1,410 euros, retroactive to January 2022” and “this will ensure the principle of maintaining the protection of an uncut level of remuneration equivalent to two national minimum wages,” the TAP executive committee said in a message sent to workers.
According to the letter, specifically for the pilots, the Executive Committee chaired by Christine Ourmières-Widener “will unilaterally reduce the cut they suffered by 10%”, as well as pay landing compensation without cuts and retroactively to January 2022 and suspend The application of Recovery (and not planning overtime accordingly).
The mechanism of Recovery It is provided for in clause 12 of the ATE [Acordo Temporário de Emergência] and allows applying a sanction to TAP if it exceeds 300,000 annual flight hours and also limits TAP from planning overtime for pilots, according to the note to which the Portuguese agency had access.
Source: Observadora
