According to the Vida trade union, Lauda Europe, which operates at Vienna Airport, is to turn the pilots' wages. In future, they will receive an hourly wage of 40 euros (gross) for each hour of flight actually completed. The basic salary should therefore be deleted.

The employee representatives refer to documents that were presented to them by the pilots concerned. The so-called basic income is calculated from at least 40 flight hours at this hourly rate. This was guaranteed by contract. According to Vida, at least 1.600 euros gross per month should have been fixed. That is about to change, because in the future they only want to pay 40 euros gross per flight hour for the flight time actually performed. The Vida union expects that incomes will fall and that in view of the corona situation it could also happen that a salary is earned at all. Among other things, the winter 2020/21 and the temporary cessation of flight operations from March to the end of June 2021, at that time still as a laudamotion, must be remembered.

According to Vida, many “just want to get away”

Those affected also report further harassment on the part of the company: For example, "standby" is said to have been entered in the duty rosters during the lockdown, even though there were no flights on many days, according to pilots. That meant nothing more than having to sit away from the families near the airport all day. With the new contracts, this situation is aggravated again, as these services would now be provided without any basic remuneration. “Because of this harassment, some 80 pilots sat around the airport senselessly during lockdown times without a single flight ever taking place,” one affected person told us and added, “We just want to get away from here.”

“In view of such precarious and harassing working conditions, many simply can no longer afford to work for Lauda. As you can hear, pilots are said to be looking around for new jobs in droves or have already left the company and work for other airlines. We are already hearing that the Lauda Europe management is contacting pilots and asking them to return the vacation they have already approved, ”says Vida unionist Daniel Liebhart.

“The mismanagement of the company is only one side of the coin.” Much more serious are “such medieval working conditions” for the directly affected employees, who for the most part still have to repay high training loans - usually in the amount of 100.000 euros. In addition, this reprehensible employment policy creates dumping competition in the industry, which means that in the medium term every company will resort to such questionable practices in order to be able to survive the tough price war. "This situation will not get better just by watching," Liebhart warns the political actors: "The industry urgently needs fair rules and tough sanctions in order to be able to punish rule violations."

Vida calls again for the branch KV

"The federal government is called upon to finally keep its announcements and to take measures against such disgusting social dumping", criticizes Daniel Liebhart, chairman of the Vida department of aviation. The trade unionist appeals to the Chamber of Commerce that an industry collective agreement could also be used to combat social dumping in Austria. “Otherwise there will also be pilots in the future who are based at Vienna Airport and have limited, precarious Maltese or similar service contracts in Austria, and it will still be possible to fly cheaply at the expense of the employees. The machinations of Lauda Europe, which is part of the Ryanair group, and the disenfranchisement of on-board employees should finally be put in place with a legally binding stop. Such corporate cultures that despise employees must no longer find a breeding ground in Austria and the EU, ”says Liebhart.