The Vida union and the Austrian Airlines on-board works council firmly reject the company's allegations that some employees were registered with the Public Employment Service (AMS) for dismissal because they refused to retrain Dash-8s for other types of aircraft.

The Aerotelegraph.com portal had previously reported that around 12 Dash captains should refuse to be retrained on other models. Accordingly, this would have threatened the demotion to First Officer. As a “consolation”, however, there should continue to be the reference to the commanders. The sharp clarification that has now been made by the union and the works council generally raises further questions about the approach taken by Austrian Airlines.

“In contrast to the reports of the company in some media, we have several letters from those affected to the AUA. In these they have expressly declared themselves willing and ready to work. In addition, these employees never refused to retrain. Rather, the company did not accept applications from individuals because they refused to move from the country bases to Vienna Airport in the course of retraining. “By linking the retraining with the change of station, the company would like to anticipate a pending court decision on the country base closings and force the colleagues into a new service contract. However, these two legal questions must be considered separately from one another - a large number of further legal disputes are therefore to be expected, ”clarify Rainer Stratberger, Chairman of the AUA Works Council Bord, and Christina Pratl, Deputy Chairwoman of the Vida Aviation Department. 

The company also extended short-time working for the affected employees just a few days ago. The majority of the employees affected by the termination are already over 50 years old. Subsequently, the AMS regional advisory board will therefore have to deal with the company's approach. "In order to obtain the most benevolent opinion-finding possible in the interests of the company in this committee, the AUA management's lobbying apparatus has also become active today to tell the story one-sidedly from the company's point of view," criticize the works council and the union.

The fact that there are different interpretations of facts in a constitutional state is not particularly worrying. “Who is right or wrong in this matter will have to be clarified by the courts. What is worrying, however, is that corporations like Lufthansa, which have received billions in taxpayers' money, believe they have to create a distorted image of public opinion on labor law issues in this way in order to be able to influence social law issues with their political lobbying apparatus, "are Stratberger and Pratl horrified.