Just over half of the flying personnel at the Lauda Europe base in Vienna are employed by the Austrian branch of the temporary employment agency Crewlink. In contrast to the airline, this has been on short-time work since November 2020. The Lower Austria Labor Market Service therefore bears the majority of the wage costs.

When it comes to short-time work in Austria, the Ryanair Group literally shot itself in the knee, because after a real soap opera, Laudamotion was able to introduce it before it was launched finishedin order to be able to put pressure on the implementation of the desired new collective agreement. The KV was never formally concluded and many received it immediately after the protection period Laudamotion employees gave notice of termination.

Crwlink was not on short-time work in the spring

Due to the fact that flight operations, including personnel, are based on the newly founded Maltese Lauda Europe Ltd. has been transferred, this is not entitled to use short-time work. This results from the legal situation, because a company has to exist on the market for at least one year in order to benefit from this state aid.

The personnel leasing company Crewlink could not get short-time work approved in the spring, because the Austrian branch did not become active until autumn 2019. Immediately after the eligibility requirements were met, this measure was introduced at the temporary employment agency. The Ryanair base Vienna, which with Was closed at the end of the year, incidentally, was not granted short-time work because you worked in Austria for less than a year.

Under the aspect that more than half of the flying personnel is employed via Crewlink and that the majority of the wage costs are borne by the Lower Austria Labor Market Service due to the state support measure the circular from Lauda Europe Managing Director David O'Brien, reported on by Aviation Direct, downright absurd. He doesn’t say a word about the fact that many flight attendants and pilots are on short-time work via Crewlink and the Ryanair Group itself too their flagging out to Malta is responsible for the fact that this can no longer be used for the permanent employees.

Crewlink employees fear that their contract will be extended

However, the Lauda employees who work via Crewlink have a completely different concern: Without exception, all contracts are limited in time and many will expire in April 2021. Those affected want to have heard signs that these should not be extended. This means that many flight attendants and pilots are worried about their jobs at Crewlink too - despite short-time work. In the present employment contracts, which are held in complicated legal English, one generally only assumes a limited contract period and points out that neither a takeover nor an extension in any form can be guaranteed.

A labor court must clarify whether the time limit is even permissible. The Austrian legal situation is extremely strict in this regard, because contracts with an expiration date are only permitted with very good justification. This has to be in the employment contract, but Crewlink has - for whatever reason - waived it. The contracts are very similar to those that are used throughout Europe and have only been adapted to Austria in a minimalist manner.

For the Crewlink employees there is another problem: the company - according to the union - would be obliged to apply the collective agreement for temporary workers. In principle, the KV that also applies to permanent employees is to be applied. However, Lauda Europe does not have one, which is why, according to employee representatives, the KV for temporary workers is applicable. Instead of adhering to these, the Lauda Europe employees who are employed via Crewlink are paid according to Lauda's in-house wage model.

Absurd: Those who don't work earn more money

This leads to extremely absurd circumstances: According to the flight attendants concerned, one tries to avoid the already extremely meager flight services, as the hourly pay has a negative effect on the monthly salary. This is below the reference that you get mathematically in short-time work without flies. This means that those who do not work on short-time work financially better than those who spend a few hours flying. Hardly to be surpassed in absurdity.

The Lauda wage sheet for flight attendants stipulates that regardless of the flight hours, a minimum wage of 1.700 euros must be paid. This also refers to CEO David O'Brien in his circular. However, several Lauda Europe employees report independently of one another that the amount of the payment varies greatly on a monthly basis and it is difficult to see how the amount paid out is made up. In some cases, the basic wage should only have been paid without the variable components.

At Crewlink, the situation should be similar, although their employees would actually be subject to the collective agreement for temporary workers. According to the flight attendants affected, the amount paid out for short-time work varies between EUR 1.400 and EUR 1.700. In December, including the Christmas bonus, around 2.200 euros were transferred to the accounts.