Iberia will have to review its cabin protocols to prevent its stewardesses from ending up injured by the weight of the suitcases. This has been dictated by the National High Court in a recent ruling (the full text of which can be consulted here), where it agrees with the airline’s Flight Works Committee and confirms that the cabin crew makes dangerous overexertion, when lifting and loading the cabin compartments hand luggage too heavy. A task for which the regulation uniforms are not designed, the magistrates point out, who urge the company to address some changes.
When Iberia added the Airbus A350 to its fleet in July 2018, it did not take into account that in order to close these larger-capacity luggage compartments, a tilting base that holds the luggage must be raised instead of lowering the gate. This maneuver makes it necessary for the stewardesses to exert a greater pushing force with the body inclined on the passenger seats in order to close these compartments.
In March 2020, and given the risk of overexertion for the cabin crew, the Committee filed a collective dispute before the National High Court to which different unions adhered.
The ruling, for which Judge Jose Pablo Aramendi was the rapporteur, obliges Iberia to “establish measures to control the weight of hand luggage that passengers take into the cabin” so as to guarantee both “compliance with the contract signed with the acquisition of the travel ticket (suitcases with a maximum of 10 kg except business which is 14 kg) as the porters are not loaded above the maximum weight indicated” and all this affects the health of the cabin crew.
The magistrates consider the request of the unions to eliminate the porters in the passenger cabin to avoid the risk unfeasible. For this reason, they are committed to adopting the measures provided for in art. 14 of the Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks, such as “combating risks at their source, adapting the work to the person, taking into account the evolution of the technique or substituting what is dangerous for what involves little or no danger”.
To reach this conclusion, the court previously requested a report from the Labor Inspectorate on the occupational risks that closing the A350 trunks may entail, taking into account that their maximum loads range from a minimum of 30 kg to a maximum of 45 kg. The Inspection ensures that “there is no weight control before boarding and at the access to the plane the stewardesses only verify that the carried hand luggage fits by volume in the trunks”, without verifying if it exceeds 10 kg or 14 of the class business.
In addition, the closing height of the trunk can reach up to 2.20 meters, causing the effort to be greater “especially for female workers 1.60 meters tall or similar” causing them to have to adopt “a forced posture from the physical point of view and very uncomfortable about the situation.”
On the other hand, the body dependent on the Ministry of Labor considers that the airline “has not established the appropriate preventive measures against the occupational risk evaluated, thus breaching the Law on Prevention of Occupational Risks” and that it has not provided affected workers with a ” Sufficient and adequate preventive training, theoretical and practical, on the ergonomic recommendations that must be observed to carry out the task safely”.
As Iberia has prepared a file on ergonomic recommendations in closing luggage compartments and has updated the risk prevention course incorporating the recommendations of the Labor Inspectorate, the ruling considers that the airline’s conduct “always perfectible, meets the requirements on information and training” and does not condemn the company for non-compliance with the regulations on occupational risk prevention.
Shorter flight attendants
The Labor Inspectorate establishes in its report that Iberia must distribute the work on the aircraft to guarantee that the closure of the luggage compartments with the greatest ergonomic risk is carried out either by “two workers, or by a worker of adequate height”. The company should guarantee that “workers of height of 1.60 or similar are helped by another worker for the taller porters or those who carry a greater weight.”
The ruling of the National Court establishes that the airline must “establish organizational measures of mandatory compliance by the flight attendant” so that, when the work is distributed, “they guarantee that the closing of the luggage compartments with the greatest ergonomic risk is carried out by two workers” always that his height is less than 1.63 meters.
The magistrates reject the claim of the unions and the Company Committee so that the affected workers are not obliged to carry out the trunk closing maneuver; “It is clear that if the luggage compartments are not closed, the plane cannot take off due to the risk of falling objects during the flight”.
In addition, as the cabin crew carry out the closing operations of these trunks with a frequency of once per flight and they are long-haul aircraft, the risk of loading the suitcases may occur at most twice per day. labor. Therefore, the magistrates consider that “we are in the presence of an occasional risk” and reject the plaintiffs’ request that the stewardesses not be obliged to close the trunks.
Uniforms and occupational risk
During the visit of the Labor Inspectorate, the occupational risk prevention delegates indicated that the uniform had recently been changed so that the top garments for female personnel caused “greater discomfort/rigidity when performing the tasks”. over-the-shoulder movements necessary to perform the task.
The Inspection report considers that establishing a new uniform may “represent a change in the conditions in which the work task can be carried out, and despite this, the company has not reassessed its ergonomic risk with the use of the new uniform” .
The magistrates take this report into account and establish that the airline must reassess the ergonomic risk that the new cabin crew uniforms may imply, “adopting the appropriate measures in this regard after carrying out said evaluation.”
Iberia has assured the court that “instructions have already been given for a new uniformity that allows the necessary movements to close the trunks” by the stewardesses.
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