Vueling is watching closely the negotiations between ministries and social agents. If an agreement is not reached to extend the ERTEs (temporary furlough) beyond the end of the month, it plans to start a ‘classic’ one for all its 4,000 workers it told unions on Thursday.
Currently the entire staff of the airline is in ERTE due to force majeure. The company assures that if ERTE is maintained due to force majeure, the move towards ETOP would not be necessary. An ETOP is a similar scheme but for economic, technical, organisational and production reasons.
However, the ETOP measure, if applied, would affect all groups of the company, among which there are 1,150 pilots.
Pilots union asks for negotiation of restructure
Sepla, the pilots union, asked this Friday that “any workforce restructuring measure that (the company) wants to consider to face the coming months, be done through negotiation and an agreement with the representatives of its workers.”
Last Wednesday, Globalia also announced its intention to start another ERTE convention on 9,000 employees. Likewise, Iberia announced a similar measure for between 4,000 and 5,000 people on Monday.
Current ERTE due to end on 30th September
These announcements took place days before the expiration of the extraordinary ERTE on 30th September. The tourism sector is pending the extension of the current conditions of this type of ERTE. However, with less than a week to go, companies are naturally looking at alternatives.
Vueling explained to news site Efe that on Thursday a letter was sent to the unions to convene a round table for negotiations. The letter stated that ETOP would be promoted only if there is no agreement between the government and the social agents to extend the current ERTE.
Some 270,000 workers are still covered by the temporary furlough scheme.
