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Norwegian hits unions with surprise reshuffle

Scandinavian budget airline Norwegian is transferring all its pilots in Sweden, Norway and Denmark to three new daughter companies, it announced on Thursday afternoon, as tensions grew on the sixth day of industrial action.

Published: 5 March 2015 21:24 CET
Norwegian hits unions with surprise reshuffle
Norwegian's Boeing 737-800 fleet parked up at Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Photo: Johan Nilsson / NTB scanpix
After an extra board meeting Norwegian said it has created three new subsidiaries for its pilots in Scandinavia. The collective agreement will apply in the new firms, including the right to strike, said the airline.
 
"Enough is enough. More than 100,000 travellers have been affected by the pilot strike so far. Norwegian Air Norway (NAN) management has been given full power by management of the mother company to rescue the organization from this ongoing crisis," said the airline in a press release. 
 
The unexpected news caused outrage among the unions, who saw the reorganization as an attempt at divide and rule tactics which contravened Norwegian employment legislation. 
 
“Kjos cannot do what he has just done. As an employer, he has no authority to decide over workers while they are on strike.They are temporarily released from their employment,” Hans-Erik Skjæggerud, leader of the Parat union, told NTB newswire. 
 
“This seems like an attempt to circumvent the entire right to strike.Kjos’s goal has been split up pilot corps in Scandinavia, and he has now tried to do by throwing them out of the NAN [Norwegian Air Norway] subsidiary and into three newly formed subsidiaries.” 
 
Kjos’s said that the company had taken legal advice over the move and was comfortable that it was within the law. 
 
“We have received a clear message that we are on safe ground legally,” he said. 
 
Pilots employed by NAN want to maintain tight organizational links with the parent company in the hope of safeguarding their jobs and to standardize salary conditions for all pilots employed in the various Scandinavian subsidiaries.
 
Norwegian, which last year suffered its first loss in eight years, is looking to reduce the costs and benefits for pilots, and increase job flexibility.
 
All 700 pilots employed by NAN are on strike and 800 cabin staff have been sent home without pay in a Norwegian-imposed lockout.
 
Earlier on Thursday, Norwegian gave pilots’ unions NPU and Parat until 3pm to begin negotiations – but the unions did not show up.
 
Hans Erik Skjaeggerud, chairman of Parad, likened the deadline to a gun to the head.
 
“We recognize this and our members are used to it. We negotiated last night and have agreed to some changes concerning pensions and insurance. But the company gives nothing back,” he told 
Norwegian broadcaster TV2.
 
But Norwegian CEO Bjørn Kjos told Norway’s news agency NTB: “They have been given the opportunity to negotiate even after the deadline. This is the opposite of a threat.”
 
More than 100,000 travellers have been hit by the strike. Practically all domestic flights in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, as well as flights within Scandinavia, have been cancelled for two days.
 
On Thursday passengers travelling from Sweden to other European destinations including Paris were sent text messages overnight to say that their flights would be operated by Small Planet Airlines, a budget carrier based in Lithuania and Poland. 
 
Passengers were advised to check online before travelling to the airport.
 
Those who texted to say that they would be flying on Small Planet Airlines carriers were told: "The departure time, flight number and booking reference is the same. If you choose not to travel, we can offer you a full refund by contacting our Contact Centre by phone. Norwegian apologizes for the inconvenience."
 

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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