2023-11-20 13:20:38
The resolution of the tender for ground services – “handling” – at the Spanish airports managed by Aena has unleashed discontent not only among one of the companies involved in the process, Iberia, but also among workers in the sector. UGT is going to call a strike during the week of the December long weekend – the dates have yet to be defined – to demand “real, concrete and clear commitments to avoid the reduction of workers’ rights” in the sector.
UGT, which, like CC OO, has filed a claim before the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Resources requesting the annulment of the contest and access to all documentation; has reiterated, as it already stated when challenging the process, that, despite its declaration of intentions, “Aena still has not established a real, concrete and clear commitment to act in situations of non-compliance with the agreement, taking into account that it is the main actor In the business”.
This union, like Commissions, had already revolted against the result of the contest, calling for protests against Aena, which they accuse of making employment at airports precarious. The centers have accused the airport manager of handing over a good part of the “handling” that Iberia had always done to “operators with a majority of foreign capital and some well-known in the sector for repeated non-compliance in labor matters.”
In this regard, UGT now insists that “the history of the last seven years of licenses, with constant non-compliance in labor matters by all companies, reflected in thousands of individual demands from workers, dozens of collective conflicts and repeated calls for strike, has led to a situation of systematic judicialization of labor relations. And whatever Aena says, these current competitions do not provide any real, concrete and clear solution to this perverse dynamic,” he adds.
Iberia claim
The unions have not been the only ones to express their discontent with the resolution of this contest. Iberia also presented another claim to the Contractual Appeals Court on October 20, considering that there were “irregularities” in the contest in which it lost eight licenses, including those for large airports. The company justified this claim by arguing that the legal procedure for processing the file has been violated, which leaves it defenseless.
Along these lines, the airline maintains that the resolution has not been argued in any way and that in addition, confidentiality has been alleged to deny Iberia access to “sufficient information” in order to know the motivations for said scores. They also affirm that “the legal deadlines for the delivery of the file have been breached.”
Aena defends herself
Faced with all this cataract of accusations, the airport manager counters that all companies that operate in their airports must comply with sectoral agreements in the subrogation processes and in the maintenance of the working conditions and salaries of the workers. Furthermore, he recalls that the public tender for assigning licenses for ground handling services is “economically neutral” for the manager.
Aena also states that the handling sector agreement specifically guarantees that “no worker loses their job and that everyone maintains their working and salary conditions.” Aena reiterates that “compliance with this agreement is mandatory.”
The manager has explained that the result of the allocation of handling licenses is the result of a “transparent and objective” public tender, which emanates from a European directive and for which Aena is responsible because the legislation delegates a public function to it.
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