Lisbon, July 31, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel (SNPVAC) has called a three-day strike by cabin crew at easyJet between 15 and 17 August, accusing the company of ignoring several attempts to resolve labour issues.

According to the strike notice sent by the union to the Ministry of Labour and the airline, to which Lusa has had access, the strike will start at 00:01 on 15 August and end at 24:00 on 17 August, for ‘all flights operated by easyJet, as well as for the other services to which cabin crew are assigned’ in Portugal.

The strike was approved at a general meeting, with 99% of votes in favour.

In the document, the SNPVAC points to the ‘dissatisfaction felt by cabin crew due to the continuous and increasingly accentuated disrespect for their professional dignity’ and the ‘numerous attempts made by easyJet cabin crew to resolve labour and pecuniary issues’, which they say have been ‘ignored by the company’.

The union also says that the latest meetings with the company have been ‘fruitless in providing solutions’ to the problems of roster instability, discriminatory treatment of pilots in compensation given during summer disruption, insufficient staffing in all relevant departments, and pressure to work overtime for commercial purposes.

The SNPVAC denounces the ‘continuous and penalising increase in the number of working hours’, the use of exceptional/emergency instruments to extend working hours as a rule to compensate for staff shortages, and the ‘illegal calculation of Christmas bonuses in intermittent work contracts’.

The union believes that minimum services should not be decreed for this strike, arguing that the concept of unforeseeable needs in the air transport sector is only confined to the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira for reasons of national cohesion and isolation of the populations for whom this means of transport is essential, which are destinations provided by other airlines.

MPE/ADB // ADB.

Lusa