Austrian Airlines has registered all employees at the Linz ground station with the labor market service for the early warning system. The carrier does not want to offer any ground handling services at the Upper Austrian airport in the future. Negotiations are in progress with ISS, which should result in a transfer of operations.

Linz-Hörsching will no longer be served by Austrian Airlines in the future. The connection to the Vienna hub was given up a few years ago or shifted to rail. The Düsseldorf route has been inactive for over a year and is to be flown by Eurowings from Germany in the future. However, the recording for April 12, 2021 has been postponed indefinitely.

The ground stations at the federal state airports go back to the former AUA regional subsidiary AAS (Austrian Air Services). This was originally founded as a joint venture between AUA and the Regio-Airports. In the 1990s, AAS was merged with Tyrolean Airways. The ground services in Linz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz and Klagenfurt were therefore merged into Austrian Airlines. While this activity has already been given up in Graz, Salzburg and Klagenfurt, it is about to be done in Linz. According to the AUA, there are currently no corresponding plans in Innsbruck.

26 jobs in Linz-Hörsching affected

In Linz, the 26 employees affected are to be offered employment at ISS Ground Services as part of a transfer of operations. Intensive negotiations are still ongoing about this. Nevertheless, the Upper Austrian employees were registered with the labor market service for the early warning system. According to a spokesman for Austrian Airlines, this is for the following reason: “Information to the AMS about possible voluntary and mutually agreed termination of contracts is required by law and is therefore a normal step - especially since discussions about a transfer of operations are well advanced. The same was done, for example, with the successfully negotiated transfer of operations for the ground station at Graz Airport a few years ago. The goal is and will continue to be the preservation of all 26 jobs at Linz Airport ”.

Regarding the negotiations about a possible transfer of operations to ISS, the media officer told Aviation Direct: “We can confirm that our talks with Linz Airport and ISS Austria regarding the transfer of operations at the Austrian Airlines station there are well advanced. The content of these discussions is a smooth transfer of operations to ISS Austria, which means that all 26 jobs at the site can be retained. An exact time for the planned change has not yet been determined. The AMS registration was not about dismissals (this also does not apply to short-time work due to the obligation to keep the contract), but about possible voluntary and amicable contract cancellations. Incidentally, a transfer of business by definition excludes any deterioration in the employment relationship - the employment contracts continue to apply with the originally made agreements and all previous employment periods with the successor. The level of remuneration must also not be reduced during the transition ”.

In Klagenfurt, the employees did not use the transfer of operations

In Klagenfurt a Negotiated transfer of operations to a subsidiary of the airport. According to the works council, however, almost all of them accepted the social plan and themselves decided against continued employment with the airport subsidiary. At least one employee is said to have accepted an alternative: Voluntary transfer to Vienna-Schwechat. In Salzburg no “BÜ” could be completed.

According to AUA employees working in Linz, enthusiasm should be about one possible transfer of operations to ISS Ground Services not exactly high. The internal communication policy is criticized particularly fiercely, because supposedly there should not have been any internal “advance warning” before the early registration. At least this would not have been clearly perceptible. At the beginning of the week, the Linz staff was officially informed at a virtual works meeting that the company was about to transfer to the ISS. Put simply, this means that if you do not want to, you can cancel yourself. Austrian Airlines has given its approval, which is why it had to report the cited early warning to the AMS.

The AUA employees in Linz are worried that working conditions could deteriorate under the potential new employer. It is also claimed that there should only be an employment guarantee for 12 months. The Upper Austrian Austrian Airlines employees would like the ground station to continue to be operated by AUA. According to reports, many want to follow the example of their colleagues and not take part in the “BÜ”. The further development remains to be seen, because according to reports, the Linz-Hörsching Airport should also have a plan B in the drawer, so that it can maintain the passage ground services in the event of the worst. The further development in Linz therefore remains to be seen.