Austerity package increasingly annoys AUA employees

Embraer 195 (Photo: Jan Gruber).
Embraer 195 (Photo: Jan Gruber).

Austerity package increasingly annoys AUA employees

Embraer 195 (Photo: Jan Gruber).
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The savings package agreed with the union and the works council at Austrian Airlines due to the corona pandemic is increasingly causing dissatisfaction among the workforce. The ÖGB sub-union Vida is calling for a renegotiation, because this would have been agreed under completely different conditions than those that are currently the case.

In the case of flying personnel, co-pilots and young flight attendants earn money with the always im Crossfire from the criticized competitors Lauda Europe and Wizz Air are now significantly better than with Austrian Airlines. The background is that salaries have been drastically reduced in some cases and with the consent of the works council and union. As part of the austerity package, employees have to forgo part of their salary for three years. This year there will be ten percent less, next year 13 percent less and in year three there will be seven percent less. Officially, there is talk of "renunciation", but there can be no talk of voluntariness, because the management, union and works council have jointly decided on this as a "crisis contribution". There was no real opportunity for those affected to object, but the workforce agreed with a large majority. Apparently, many only thought about keeping their jobs in the short term and not about the consequences of their consent to their employee representatives.

In the meantime, some flight attendants have left Austrian Airlines, because the staff now have to pay for the cleaning of their uniforms themselves. Up to 25 euros per cleaning process are incurred. Viewed over the entire month, a hefty amount can accumulate, especially the cabin crew, who, along with the ground service staff, have been severely affected by the wage cuts.

No breakfast at the hotel, no crew meals and uniform cleaning has to be paid for by yourself

In addition, there are sometimes absurd cost-cutting measures such as skipping breakfast when staying in a hotel (e.g. after night stops) or not providing meals. Before the corona pandemic, this was a matter of course, but the AUA flight attendants no longer get crew meals, even on long-haul flights. Bring your own snack or pay for the food is the current state of affairs.

In an interview with Aviation.Direct, an AUA flight attendant, who wants to remain anonymous out of concern for her job, describes the current working conditions as unbearable, especially since the monthly salary - taking into account the costs that now have to be borne by yourself - is barely enough to live on. She also stated that she and many of her colleagues minor part-time jobs in gastronomy and would exercise in commerce to “kinda make ends meet”. A direct comparison of current wage slips for flight attendants with comparable years of service at Lauda Europe and Wizz Air has shown that the salaries at Austrian Airlines are significantly below those of the supposedly cheap competition.

This is somewhat surprising given that the AUA board of directors regularly severely criticized the competition namely sboth in terms of airfare and allegedly low pay. The documents available show that, at least in the area of ​​co-pilots and young flight attendants, one literally throws stones out of the glass house, because the net amount that is transferred to the current account at the end of the month counts for those affected.

New AUA cabin in the Airbus A320 (Photo: Granit Pireci).

This was quite low for AUA flight attendants for almost two years, because the labor market service takes this into account in the case of short-time work, only the basic salary. Any allowances, allowances, expenses and payments dependent on flight hours were not taken into account for legal reasons. It was particularly hard on AUA cabin crew with young seniority, because their salary is even lower than that of the sister company Eurowings Europe. The young flight attendants from Austrian Airlines receive around 1.400 euros gross for full-time work, without taking the cost-cutting measures into account. Former AUA boss Alexis von Hoensbroech admitted that one would have had to separate from many employees without short-time work.

Before the corona pandemic, Austrian Airlines was considered the most social employer among the airlines based at Vienna Airport. There has always been criticism, but the Lufthansa subsidiary granted its employees numerous extras that Lauda and Wizz Air, for example, did not have. Examples: crew meals, cleaning of uniforms and, in some cases, quite classy hotel accommodation during night stops. With the latter, it was a matter of course that there was breakfast after the overnight stay. In the meantime, the AUA employees have to dig into their pockets for this as well.

Ticket prices have gradually increased over the years

Just recently, Austrian Airlines increased under the pretext of increased fuel prices again the ticket prices. Over the last ten years, these have gradually been increased by reducing the included services. Under the guise of “it's cheaper without a suitcase”, fares were introduced that did not include luggage, but passengers pay more than before, even if they fly “suitcase-less”. The snacks and drinks included on short and medium-haul routes were initially offered in Economy Class under the pretext of “reducing contacts”. Water, tea and coffee reduced, long before this was practiced by low-cost airlines introduced paid catering. The ticket prices have not been reduced by the “saved inclusive catering”, but have gradually increased on classic business traveler routes since June 2020.

Only on routes that are not in particularly high demand or that are able to stand up to competitors such as Ryanair or Wizz Air has there been little sign of the price increases so far. In the official sales communication of the Lufthansa Group, it was also explicitly mentioned that one also reserves the right to do so on routes where there is strong competition continue to attract customers with promotional prices.

Employees of Austrian Airlines ask themselves why, despite the enormous price increases in everyday life - for example for electricity, gas and food - wages should continue to be foregone. The planes would be full again and Austrian Airlines would be able to achieve a higher yield than before the pandemic. On top of that, the state would have granted a non-repayable grant of 150 million euros and this should also serve to secure jobs. The personnel costs would have been almost completely covered by the state due to the almost two-year short-time work of the flying personnel. In the areas of technology and commercial employees Austrian Airlines is still on short-time work. The accusation of the AUA employee, who would like to remain anonymous in public: “The state paid most of our wages, so that AUA had no wage costs for almost two years. 150 million euros went to AUA and we have to continue to forego part of our wages because of the austerity package. Passengers are only offered something like a Ryanair product on board, i.e. buy on board, and what should you think of that? Profit maximization at the expense of us employees?”.

Paid catering at AUA (Photo: Granit Pireci).

Austrian Airlines refers to agreed crisis collective agreements

The focal point of the current dissatisfaction is the austerity package agreed between management, the works council and the union. This applies until 2024, because then negotiations on a new collective agreement will also be pending. The media office of Austrian Airlines first explained to the Austrian broadcaster: "As has been known for a long time, Austrian put together a crisis package at the beginning of the pandemic to ensure the continued existence of the company. Saving measures, which are supported by all employees as well as the works council and the union, are part of the crisis collective agreement. The crisis collective agreements were concluded with the responsible works councils and trade unions.”

In this context, it should be mentioned that the employee representatives voted on the cornerstones of the austerity package or the have obtained consent to the conclusion of the contract. However, both trade unionists and AUA employees criticize the fact that at the time there was no other choice at all, because the alternative would have been hundreds, if not thousands, of layoffs. In private, an employee representative says that the austerity package was also a prerequisite for the state and Lufthansa to transfer money to Austrian Airlines. Without this, the rescue package would not have existed, so that from today's perspective upon approval there could be no question.

The criticism is not primarily aimed at Frankfurt, but rather at the Austrian government, which failed to enforce binding job and wage guarantees in the course of state aid and loans. The AUA employees in the lowest wage levels would now suffer particularly badly from this omission. In the meantime, so many flight attendants have left the company that they are looking for around 150 cabin employees. These start at the lowest seniority level and are also affected by the “salary waiver”. After all: After initial criticism resulting from the fact that only a small group of people should receive a corona bonus, almost all employees will now receive an extra one-time payment of around 500 euros. This does not apply to newcomers.

Within Austrian Airlines, the pressure on the works council and union is now growing, because many AUA employees are of the opinion that they negotiated badly at the beginning of the pandemic - from today's perspective - and "felt pretty much agreed to everything the board wanted ”. So it is not surprising that the Vida now requires a renegotiation and thus correction of the AUA savings package wants to achieve.

AUA flags at Vienna Airport (Photo: Jan Gruber).

Vida wants to renegotiate - For Wizz Air flight attendants, the crisis was even harder

Among other things, Daniel Liebhart, Head of Aviation at Vida, explains to the Austrian broadcaster that the current crisis contract was concluded under completely different framework conditions. At that time it would not have been foreseeable for the employees and the management. The sharply increased costs in everyday life are therefore not taken into account. It is therefore necessary to consider that the austerity package must be renegotiated and that the current situation "is also becoming bearable for the employees". It can therefore be assumed that the works council and Vida want to start negotiations about reducing the wage cuts. How the AUA board will react to this is still completely open.

Many aviation companies in Europe have negotiated savings packages with their staff representatives in the wake of the corona pandemic. Depending on the company, these have turned out to be extremely different. Many airports and airlines now have staff shortages because numerous employees have been looking for new jobs in other sectors. Some airports and carriers have also been laid off on a large scale and now you literally have the salad, because exactly these employees are now missing and the interest in getting into aviation again is kept within very narrow limits, especially among flight attendants. 

Wizz Air and Austrian Airlines at Vienna Airport (Photo: Jan Gruber).

A tough example of cost-cutting measures at the expense of the workforce is the approach that Wizz Air chose at the Vienna base. In contrast to Austrian Airlines, no short-time work was reported, but the staff were only paid the basic wage. However, the lion's share of the monthly salary at this airline is generated through flight-related work (“sectors”). So it came about that, for example, flight attendants who actually had a full-time job only received around 756 euros. Many therefore turned their backs on the Hungarian low-cost airline in 2020 and 2021, because in view of the strong year 2019, which served as the basis for assessment at the labor market service, there was more unemployment on the account. Most of those who have chosen this path now work in other sectors, such as in supermarkets. The result was that Wizz Air in the summer of the previous year in Vienna was struggling with an acute staff shortage.

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