TAP lifts reduction in crew working hours, to increase operating capacity for summer
TAP will lift the reduction in working hours determined in emergency agreements with crew members and also intends to reinstate former workers.
From April 1, TAP will move forward with lifting the reduction in working hours determined in emergency agreements with crew members and also intends to reinstate professionals who have left the company and re-hire them on a temporary basis.
In an internal message sent to employees, to which Lusa had access, the airline said that taking into account the forecasts for the IATA 2022 summer, it decided to “present measures that enable an increase in operating capacity in order to prepare for a desirable context of recovery of TAP’s activity.”
The company, which warns that these measures are “tentative and transitory in nature” and may be “attenuated or interrupted” if necessary, has decided to suspend part of the temporary emergency agreement it signed with the National Civil Aviation Flight Staff Union (SNPVAC).
Thus, TAP will go ahead with the “temporary suspension of the regime of reduction of the normal working period”, foreseen in one of the clauses of the agreement which determined the “introduction of a reduction of the normal working period across all crew members,” that this year “was set at 10%”, reads the message.
According to TAP, this temporary suspension begins “on April 1, 2022 and will last until December 31, 2022 and may end at an earlier date or be extended, depending on the evolution of the activity in light of the restructuring plan.”
During the suspension period, TAP said, there “will be no reduction in wages” under the normal working hours reduction scheme, nor a “reduction in hourly limits” under the same scheme.
The company also stated that during this period there will be “no restrictions on the planning of hours that exceed the limits”.
In fact, if the optimistic forecasts for the operation are confirmed, “in some months” there may be “work needs that exceed the monthly limits’ in working hours”, which, should this happen, will be “included in the respective schedules and/or alterations to them”, and “the hourly wage that is shown to be due will be processed and paid under the terms of the Remuneration, Retirement and Social Guarantees Regulations”, with the reductions foreseen in the emergency agreement.
In addition to this suspension of part of the agreement, TAP, recalling that in 2020 there was a reduction of around 1,000 crew members with fixed-term contracts, will “reintegrate some of the cabin crew members affected by this reduction, as well as, if appropriate and for temporary needs, use fixed-term contracts, a measure that may also lead to a rebalancing of staff in the various fleets/functions, again with the aim of preparing for a desirable context of recovery of TAP’s activity.
The company has signed several emergency agreements with the unions, due to the problems posed by the Covid-19 pandemic that forced the paralysis of activity and the implementation of a restructuring plan, which has since been approved by Brussels.
