TAP pilots’ union calls off threatened Easter strike
"Some of the major obstacles to understanding between the parties have been resolved, namely the situation of coexisting pilots still covered by the collective dismissal process", said the union.
Portugal’s civil aviation pilots’ union (SPAC) has called off the strike scheduled at TAP for the period between 7 and 10 April, after the agreement they negotiated was validated by the government, it was announced on Wednesday.
The SPAC board said in a statement that, “contrary to what has been reported since Monday, it was only today (Wednesday) that the TAP Executive Committee notified that the protocol to review the conditions imposed by the temporary emergency agreement has been validated by the shareholder, represented by the ministry of finance and the ministry of infrastructure.
“As SPAC announced from the first moment and once this formality is fulfilled by the government, the strike notice for TAP Air Portugal pilots, announced last 23 March, will be lifted,” the statement said.
According to the union, “some of the major obstacles to understanding between the parties have been resolved, namely the situation of coexisting pilots still covered by the collective dismissal process with the simultaneous hiring of other pilots, thus resulting in greater retention of talent,” it said.
According to SPAC, the airline and the union “discussed and negotiated in good faith, spending time and energy, to reach a consensus, and signed an agreement beneficial to all, validated by pilots in the general assembly last March 23, and today by the government of Portugal”.
The SPAC recalled some of the main issues included in the protocol and that include an “agreement on the integration of pilots laid off in view of the need to hire and retain talent” and a “payment to pilot officers with command functions in cruise”, as well as the day of “assistance service at the airport and simulators”.
The pilots also negotiated “the same measures recently applied to other professional categories” and the compensation, in April and May, of the items “concerning the complementary allowance and its annual adjustment, retroactively to March”.
The pilots approved on 23 March a strike at Easter, between 7 and 10 April, to pressure the government to ratify the agreement signed with TAP, which reinstates working conditions withdrawn in 2021, the SPAC announced.
The strike was approved at a pilots’ assembly as the government was “not committing to securing this agreement with the new management” of TAP, SPAC source told Lusa at the time, referring to the departure of the current CEO of TAP and the entry of the new CEO, Luís Rodrigues.
“Until the government ratifies the proposal we will maintain the strike,” said a source from the SPAC board, insisting that the proposal agreed between TAP, whose presidency will change, and the SPAC needed to be “approved”.
The agreement between TAP and the union ensures a “restoration of working conditions removed in the 2022 agreement,” the statement said.
