SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

STRIKES

Austrian Airlines strikes: Are the two sides any closer to a deal?

Austrian Airlines has cancelled 400 flights due to an upcoming scheduled strike as workers negotiate their collective agreements, but how close is a deal and will there be more disruption in the coming weeks?

Austrian Airlines strikes: Are the two sides any closer to a deal?
An Austrian Airlines plane (Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash)

Austrian Airlines (AUA) announced on Tuesday that it has had to cancel around 400 flights after cabin crew confirmed a strike action during Easter week, as The Local reported. According to the company, around 40,000 passengers affected have already been informed and offered options to cancel their flights or reschedule. 

The strike should last 36 hours, from midnight on Wednesday night until midday on Friday. Yet, while some worker’s representatives say they’d be willing to cancel the strike (though the flights would remain cancelled if that happened) if they came to an agreement with the company, statements by both sides seem to show that they couldn’t be farther from a deal.

And that means more strikes could follow.

READ ALSO: What do Austrians eat during Easter celebrations?

Large salary difference to Lufthansa

One of the issues recently brought up by the trade union, which has demanded salary increases of up to almost 50 percent, is the significant salary gap between workers of Austrian Airlines and those who work for parent company Lufthansa.

Unions claim salaries at Austrian Aitrnes are around 40 percent lower.

“The fact is: from an Austrian perspective, we are in a situation where there are glaring inequalities compared to the Lufthansa Group,” union leader Roman Hebenstreit told Ö1-Morgenjournal on Wednesday.

“From the point of view of the Austrian workforce, we need to be compensated for this,” he added.

But Austrian Airlines CEO Annette Mann went on ORF’s  ZIB2 programme on Tuesday evening and said that the comparison within the Lufthansa group is like comparing “apples with pears”.

She stated that AUA had a profit margin of just over five percent last year, which “had not been high enough”. Additionally, the company has to cover the cost of high investment in its fleet of planes, she said.

Mann criticised the union’s demands, saying that “the higher the pay deal, the more unprofitable the routes become”, which could not happen in the company’s current state. 

Discrepancy of offers

“After a total of 17 rounds of negotiations, the Vida union and the works council still do not want to discuss our offer of an increase in pay of up to 18 percent for flight attendants and pilots, and even up to 28 percent for co-pilots”,  said AUA in a statement on its website.

“With this offer, the company has already moved beyond the economically feasible pain threshold,” the statement reads. “We hope the union and the works council will come to their senses after the strike and reserve the right to revise our offer until then.”

READ ALSO: Everything that changes in Austria in April 2024

Austrian media has reported that the Vida union demands a pay rise starting at 16.94 percent for certain employees (such as senior flight attendants) and up to 49.48 percent for co-pilots. An industry expert consulted by the newspaper said that the average salary increase for foreign airlines was 9.52 percent.

Other demands by union members include more paid leave (42 calendar days from the sixth year of employment) and specifics regarding the hotels the crew stays, such as a requirement that they have a pool and fitness area and be located near the airport for waiting times of up to 12 hours otherwise in the city centre.

Strikes have been averted before

Meanwhile, from the union’s point of view, a collective agreement is still possible by Wednesday shortly before midnight to avert a strike for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. 

According to Hebenstreit, the union is willing to negotiate “right up to the last minute”. The fact that hundreds of flights will still be cancelled even if the strike is averted is “regrettable”, he said.

This is not the first time company and workers have clashed, with strikes looming over the negotiating table. Just last year, also ahead of Easter week, Austrian Airlines workers and company reached an agreement for flight staff that averted a strike, as The Local reported at the time.

Both parties struck a deal on April 3rd, the Monday of Easter week, as reported. 

We’re (much) closer to the promised strike day, but the cancellation of hundreds of flights over the high season and ahead of spring and summer certainly puts more pressure on the company.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

TRAVEL NEWS

How do the EU’s new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

As European travellers prepare for the introduction of enhanced passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System (EES), many readers have asked us what this means for the '90-day rule' for non-EU citizens.

How do the EU's new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

From the start date to the situation for dual nationals and non-EU residents living in the EU, it’s fair to say that readers of The Local have a lot of questions about the EU’s new biometric passport check system known as EES.

You can find our full Q&A on how the new system will work HERE, or leave us your questions HERE.

And one of the most commonly-asked questions was what the new system changes with regards to the 90-day rule – the rule that allows citizens of certain non-EU countries (including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the EU without needing a visa.

And the short answer is – nothing. The key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any rules on immigration, visas etc.

Therefore the 90-day rule continues as it is – but what EES does change is the enforcement of the rule.

90 days 

The 90-day rule applies to citizens of a select group of non-EU countries;

Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Macau, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela.

Citizens of these countries can spend up to 90 days in every 180 within the EU or Schengen zone without needing a visa or residency permit.

People who are citizens of neither the EU/Schengen zone nor the above listed countries need a visa even for short trips into the EU – eg an Indian or Chinese tourist coming for a two-week holiday would require a visa. 

In total, beneficiaries of the 90-day rule can spend up to six months in the EU, but not all in one go. They must limit their visits so that in any 180-day (six month) period they have spent less than 90 days (three months) in the Bloc.

READ ALSO How does the 90-day rule work?

The 90 days are calculated according to a rolling calendar so that at any point in the year you must be able to count backwards to the last 180 days, and show that you have spent less than 90 of them in the EU/Schengen zone.

You can find full details on how to count your days HERE.

If you wish to spend more than 90 days at a time you will have to leave the EU and apply for a visa for a longer stay. Applications must be done from your home country, or via the consulate of your home country if you are living abroad.

Under EES 90-day rule beneficiaries will still be able to travel visa free (although ETIAS will introduce extra changes, more on that below).

EES does not change either the rule or how the days are calculated, but what it does change is the enforcement.

Enforcement

One of the stated aims of the new system is to tighten up enforcement of ‘over-stayers’ – that is people who have either overstayed the time allowed on their visa or over-stayed their visa-free 90 day period.

At present border officials keep track of your time within the Bloc via manually stamping passports with the date of each entry and exit to the Bloc. These stamps can then be examined and the days counted up to ensure that you have not over-stayed.

The system works up to a point – stamps are frequently not checked, sometimes border guards incorrectly stamp a passport or forget to stamp it as you leave the EU, and the stamps themselves are not always easy to read.

What EES does is computerise this, so that each time your passport is scanned as you enter or leave the EU/Schengen zone, the number of days you have spent in the Bloc is automatically tallied – and over-stayers will be flagged.

For people who stick to the limits the system should – if it works correctly – actually be better, as it will replace the sometimes haphazard manual stamping system.

But it will make it virtually impossible to over-stay your 90-day limit without being detected.

The penalties for overstaying remain as they are now – a fine, a warning or a ban on re-entering the EU for a specified period. The penalties are at the discretion of each EU member state and will vary depending on your personal circumstances (eg how long you over-stayed for and whether you were working or claiming benefits during that time).

ETIAS 

It’s worth mentioning ETIAS at this point, even though it is a completely separate system to EES, because it will have a bigger impact on travel for many people.

ETIAS is a different EU rule change, due to be introduced some time after EES has gone live (probably in 2025, but the timetable for ETIAS is still somewhat unclear).

It will have a big impact on beneficiaries of the 90-day rule, effectively ending the days of paperwork-free travel for them.

Under ETIAS, beneficiaries of the 90-rule will need to apply online for a visa waiver before they travel. Technically this is a visa waiver rather than a visa, but it still spells the end of an era when 90-day beneficiaries can travel without doing any kind of immigration paperwork.

If you have travelled to the US in recent years you will find the ETIAS system very similar to the ESTA visa waiver – you apply online in advance, fill in a form and answer some questions and are sent your visa waiver within a couple of days.

ETIAS will cost €7 (with an exemption for under 18s and over 70s) and will last for three years.

Find full details HERE

SHOW COMMENTS