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SAS

Outrage over ‘crisis bonuses’ for SAS bosses

Employees of the struggling SAS airline have expressed their anger that top managers have received bonuses to entice them to stay with the struggling airline only a few months after the airline was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Outrage over 'crisis bonuses' for SAS bosses

Union representatives in Norway have learned that several managers are set to receive half a year’s earnings as an additional bonus, reportedly with the aim of enticing them to stay in the company.

The furor is so far contained to Norway, which is one partner to the Scandinavian venture.

“There have been strong reactions and I’m sure it will explode in Sweden once it gets out,” said Stig Lundsbacken, chair of the union Verkstedsklubben, to the newspaper VG.

Lundsbakken said the move was unacceptable if it was not also extended to blue-collar workers.

SAS responded on Friday and said “a very limited number of key persons” had been offered the bonus.

“This limited group is intended to find ways to cut expenses within the company, which might in fact mean that they themselves lose their jobs,” SAS press spokeswoman Malin Selander wrote in an email to the TT news agency.

Swedish white-collar union Unionen was despite this upset.

“I am very upset. We were forced to accept worse working conditions that affect the employees’ lives. To then find out the company is losing money on the other end is unacceptable,” chairman Sven Cahier told TT.

He has heard that 18 top managers are getting between three and six additional monthly wages, which adds up to 15 million kronor ($2.3 million).

Cahier said two of them had already quit.

“So the bonuses aren’t having the proposed effect,” he told TT.

SAS came under heavy fire for strong-arm tactics resulting in unions accepting massive wage cuts in late 2012 which are widely believed to have saved the airline from going under.

“As an SAS stakeholder, the Swedish state has pulled the rug from under the Swedish model despite the government saying it is in favour of it,” Unionen spokeswoman Louise Gerdemo Holmgren told The Local in November.

TT/The Local/at

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SAS

‘We agree to disagree’: Still no progress in marathon SAS strike talks

By lunchtime on Friday, talks between the Scandinavian airline SAS and unions representing striking pilots were still stuck on "difficult issues".

'We agree to disagree': Still no progress in marathon SAS strike talks

“We agree that we disagree,” Roger Klokset, from the Norwegian pilots’ union, said at lunchtime outside the headquarters of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise in Stockholm, where talks are taking place. “We are still working to find a solution, and so long as there is still some point in continuing negotiations, we will do that.” 

Mats Ruland, a mediator for the Norwegian government, said that there were “still several difficult issues which need to be solved”. 

At 1pm on Friday, the two sides took a short break from the talks for lunch, after starting at 9am. On Thursday, they negotiated for 15 hours, breaking off at 1am on Friday morning. 

READ ALSO: What’s the latest on the SAS plane strike?

Marianne Hernæs, SAS’s negotiator on Friday told journalists she was tired after sitting at the negotiating table long into the night. 

“We need to find a model where we can meet in the middle and which can ensure that we pull in the income that we are dependent on,” she said. 

Klokset said that there was “a good atmosphere” in the talks, and that the unions were sticking together to represent their members.

“I think we’ve been extremely flexible so far. It’s ‘out of this world’,’ said Henrik Thyregod, with the Danish pilots’ union. 

“This could have been solved back in December if SAS had not made unreasonable demands on the pilots,” Klokset added. 

The strike, which is now in its 12th day, has cost SAS up to 130m kronor a day, with 2,550 flights cancelled by Thursday, affecting 270,000 passengers. 

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