The Spanish union USO accuses the former airline Laudamotion of abusing the local short-time work program (ERTE). The carrier took advantage of this from March 2020, but according to the employee representatives, it should have disregarded the conditions. In one broadcast, USO even raises alleged fraud charges, for which the presumption of innocence applies.

"The Ryanair Group is trying to use state aid by subsidizing the surplus of workers in other countries with unemployment benefits from the SEPE," say representatives of the USO Air sector. “This fraudulent behavior adds to the earlier allegations made by the Labor Inspectorate when an attempt was made to include workers illegally dismissed in bases in the Canary Islands in an ERTE in order to avoid the obligation to pay wages not received from the date of dismissal to be paid (wages from processing) in January 2020 ”.

According to the union, companies in Spain can benefit from state aid because of the so-called state of alert. The program is called Expediente de Regulación Temporal de Empleo (ERTE) and includes that the employees receive unemployment benefits of around 900 euros and the social security contributions are paid by the state. In addition, companies benefiting from this aid cannot hire new workers because if they hire new workers it means that they could give more work to workers who have been suspended from their jobs (in ERTE) rather than new ones Hire workers.

“What Lauda has done is to keep the employees in Palma in partial suspension of their contracts (at ERTE), while in the summer they bring workers from Germany and Austria instead of increasing the working hours of the employees at the Palma base, as it should be. It is intended to fraudulently benefit from Spanish state aid in order to give work to foreign workers from Germany and Austria, ”a USO secretary told Aviation.Direct. “The Ryanair Group says it has € 4.500 million in cash and continues to buy new aircraft. In some cases, new staff have even been hired while there are workers in the ERTE program. The reinstatement of employees who were illegally dismissed has also been refused. At the same time, the Ryanair airlines operating in Spain, Lauda and Ryanair, are making use of state aid. Ultimately, this can mean that social security contributions have to be paid back, wages have to be paid out and unemployment benefits have to be returned to the state. While there are companies in our country that have real problems that comply with the law, this group of companies based in another country is abusing state aid with the unfair competition it creates. A company that owes its success to the abuse of labor and constant violations of the law should be viewed with a magnifying glass in our country. "

The USO union is now appealing against the Ryanair Group's actions. There is also a lawsuit pending in court, which would result in a transfer of operations from Laudamotion GmbH to Lauda Europe Ltd. should determine. This matter is expected to be heard in court for the first time in March 2021.