2023-12-13 20:01:22
The UGT and CCOO unions have called eight days of strike of the Iberia baggage management service, in the middle of Christmas, in protest because the company, they say, does not accept the creation of the ‘autohandling’ (ground service provided by the company itself) in those airports where it lost the tender called by Aena.
Union sources said this Wednesday that the strikes would take place on the days December 29, 30 and 31 and January 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7coinciding with the critical dates of the end of the year and Epiphany.
Iberia, for its part, has shown its “huge disappointment” before the “irresponsible“strike call,” in the midst of negotiating a viable solution for handling.
The airline notes the difficulty of carrying out ‘autohanding’ since it would seriously harm the competitiveness of the company and all IAG airlines, with its consequent economic impact, and with the insurmountable medium-term condemnation of this business. The unions consider that the company can assume this service with guarantees. In the case of ‘autohandling’ and partial subrogation of the service, the company recognizes that the people with the greatest seniority and, therefore, those with the highest salaries would remain in the group.
Salary costs and new award
This would mean that the operators awarded the tender would have the personnel with the lowest salary costs, so they could offer much more competitive prices than those that can be achieved through ‘autohandling’, creating a competitiveness gap between the main Spanish airlines ( Iberia, Iberia Express, Vueling) and the international operators that will contract with the new operators that win the contest.
For the management of Iberia, the strike called by the unions for Christmas “irreparably damages the right to vacation and the reunification of families and friends on such important dates and does so, in this case, in an irresponsible and meaningless manner.”
Iberia has taken legal action to request the annulment of the Aena competition and, in parallel, the company assures that it has been working to find a viable solution that will resolve the concerns expressed by the workers and their social representatives. According to the company, the possible subrogation of the workers to the companies that win the contest would be carried out with the guarantee that all of them will fully retain all their rights, all their labor, salary and extra-salary concepts, including the plane tickets they have been enjoying. as Iberia employees.
Strategic business
‘Handling’ is a “strategic business” says Iberia, key to maintaining the level of service and the company’s results, committed to the Viability Plan approved by shareholders. The company entered the Aena contest with a competitive offer, which is why it considers that it is in a position to succeed in its judicial strategy, considering the resolution of the contest “unfair and unjustified.”
The company considers that the strike is called to defend the acquired or future social rights of workers, labor rights, economic rights, union rights. In this case, he adds, “none of these rights are minimally affected or threatened. These rights are protected thanks to the recent signing of the V Convention of the sector, signed by all the unions, also by those who are now calling for this irresponsible strike at Christmas. “.
Collective agreement
The aforementioned agreement guarantees the subrogations of all workers belonging to companies that have lost the contests, in this case Iberia, to winners of the Aena contest. Among the indefinite guarantees for workers established by the V Agreement are the guarantee of the salary calculated based on the last 12 months, with the salary reviews agreed in the operator or sector agreement; guarantee of the same annual working hours and vacation days as the last 12 months; guarantee of the worker’s seniority; guarantee of the same type of contract and labor group; guarantee of the salary review established in the operator or sector agreements, of all concepts; guarantee of acquired rights over the use of airline tickets; and guarantee of pension plans.
Iberia’s management remembers that during the covid, the company was the only one in the aviation and handling sector that supplemented employees’ unemployment benefits for eight months. Beyond the important economic impact of this competitiveness differential that would prevent it from meeting the level of profitability that the group has committed to its shareholders, if Iberia did ‘autohandling’ the company would be financially rewarding the winners of the AENA contest and the international airlines. with which it competes. All of this would ultimately translate into worse results, an inability to grow and a threat to all workers in the immediate future.
Scale economics
Iberia has never done ‘autohandling’ in those airports where it operates, it has always chosen to hire the services of third parties. In a sector with such low margins and, at the same time, so intensive in human resources, the airport business also needs the volume of providing services to third-party companies to achieve minimal profitability.
Aseata, the employers’ association of the handling sector, has also repeatedly requested the limitation of the self-handling option by airlines. In its comments to the tender specifications, Aseata considers, among other arguments, that “autohandling generates uncertainty in any bidder aspiring to be an agent, since “when formulating their offer, they will lack certainty about the volume of their activity in the event that is awarded, since any airline could obtain the self-handling license and, consequently, stop requiring the services of agents”.
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Iberia appealed the award, alleging lack of defense due to lack of information and arguments, non-compliance with legal deadlines and errors detected in the few score awards that it was able to verify due to the scarcity of data. Iberia appealed to the Central Administrative Court of Contractual Resources (TACRC) to request the suspension of the tender, its subsequent annulment and the repetition of the scoring process.
At the National Court
On December 1, the TACRC declared itself incompetent to rule on the matter, without going into the substance of the matter, without assessing whether Iberia was right or not. At that time, the airline decided to appeal to the competent authority, the National Court, requesting, on the one hand, the suspension of the award of the contract and, on the other, the annulment of the TACRC resolution, with the aim of that court can rule on the merits of the matter and annul the award of the handling tender. The appeal was presented on December 5 before the National Court and Iberia remains awaiting its decision. Whatever this may be, Iberia assures that it will facilitate the process of awarding new licenses; the consequent subrogation of its employees to the new contractors; will ensure that this subrogation occurs in accordance with the law and with all social, labor, salary, extra-salary and union rights guaranteed, and will remain willing to continue with a constructive and responsible dialogue to find the best possible mixed solution, with the mechanisms and reasonable tools to resolve the concerns of its workers and their union representatives.
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