After weeks of continuous negotiations, and after receiving an extension from the Labor Court, an agreement was signed between the management of El Al and the pilots’ committee. The agreement stipulates that the pilots ‘salaries will be returned to their pre-Corona level in a gradual manner until January 2023. The pilots’ salaries will be reduced by 31% in the base salary and a 39% cut in the ESL. Stock EL AL Jumped by about 12.3% in trading in Tel Aviv.
The reduction in pilots’ salaries came at a time when EL AL was required to become more efficient, in which it parted ways with a third of its employees and more than 100 pilots. Some of them a company is trying to raise back now with the increase in demand for flying.
● Planning to fly only with a trolley? This is what you need to know beforehand
● Vacation shortened, technology has taken over: changes in the consumption habits of the Israeli tourist
It was also agreed that the pilots will conduct training and training in a crowded schedule that will begin immediately, in order to allow the company to use four of the company’s 777 aircraft, aircraft that have not returned to service since landing in 2020. Thailand. El Al has already sold more than 30,000 tickets for flights scheduled to be operated on these aircraft and if its plans had not been realized the company would have suffered millions of dollars in damages in the form of reimbursement and compensation to their customers the company sold tickets in advance.
The agreement signed today (Sunday) is valid until the end of 2025. The main points of the agreement focus on returning the pilots’ wages to the level before the corona, in a graded manner. The pilots’ salaries and terms of employment will be met in accordance with an agreement signed with management in 2018 after amending the global pilot regulations. The pilots’ demand to move to independent representation as a separate bargaining unit from the General Committee was not met. However, it was agreed that in some cases the pilots would conduct themselves independently with the management, for example in the event that a need arose to declare a sectoral labor dispute.
The end of flight cancellations
More than 100 El Al flights have been canceled in recent weeks at last-minute notice. These are mainly flights to nearby destinations (Europe) that were canceled due to the pilots’ non-staffing of the flight schedule. The cancellations reached a frequency of five flights on some days (about 5% of the company’s schedule). Passengers who were informed of the cancellations on the day of the flight also began to withdraw from the company for fear that their flight would be canceled.
Flight cancellations alongside take-off delays have become part of today’s aviation reality as they reflect global manpower shortages on ground and air crews. Thousands of flights have already been canceled from the summer schedules of various companies including Lufthansa, EasyJet, Air Canada and Delta Air Lines – but the story was different and the cancellations reflected the dispute between the management and the pilots’ committee. Will disappear from the landscape, and the confidence of consumers that has been cracking at this time – will return.
El Al recently detailed in a request that it submitted to the Labor Court in light of the conflict with its pilots the damage that accrued to it during the corona period and that reached NIS 1 billion in 2020 and 2021. To this enormous damage were added costs that were imposed on the company precisely when the demand for flying was at its peak: for every flight canceled at the last minute, El Al pays about one million shekels and more. The calculation includes the company’s obligation to return the passengers’ money in addition to compensation ranging from NIS 1,300 to NIS 3,100 per passenger. To these costs must be added the coverage of flights with other companies (at expensive last-minute prices, if a seat is available at all) accommodation arrangements for passengers whose flight has been canceled and compensation as part of claims filed by passengers who have had their plans disrupted. In this calculation, the current conflict has cost God at least NIS 100 million. Now the company will have to act to restore passenger confidence. Investor confidence is reflected in the jump in the company’s share (10%) after the announcement regarding the signing of the said agreement.
“Israir and Arkia pilots have also returned to their previous wage levels and there is no reason why this should not happen at El Al,” Avi Edri, chairman of the Histadrut’s Transport Workers’ Union, told Globes. Workers also need to recover their wages. There is no reason for employees to be in a pay cut in a situation where the company works. “
El Al CEO Dina Ben Tal Genensia said that the management intends to do everything in its power to facilitate passengers during this challenging period, while being well aware of the consequences of flight cancellations for passengers and the image of the company currently facing fierce competition from the Gulf with Emirates entering Israel. “With the signing of the agreement, we looked forward to tackling the joint forces of all sectors in El Al and together we will address the difficulties and global competition in the aviation and tourism industry. “Although in relation to international airlines EL AL has a very low rate of cancellations, we will always strive to minimize the scope of cancellations.”
Chairman of the El Al Pilots Committee, Ran Alkabetz, referred to the working relationship between the parties and noted that the agreement “restores the company and its pilots to a normal working relationship, trust and full cooperation for the benefit of the company, its customers and employees.” Stable and efficient for the broad operational flexibility required to strengthen the company and its growth. “