Pilots’ groups are calling for airlines to adhere to the social protection laws applicable at their main bases, to prevent them from exploiting different labour laws or establishing “shell” operating companies in lower-cost countries.
The European Cockpit Association (ECA) has submitted its views on the European Commission’s next wave of air transport regulation rules – the revision of the 1992 Third Package of liberalisation – and says it wants to see harmonised social standards across the European Union.
The call follows a ruling in April when a Belgian court upheld three Ryanair cabin crew members’ claim that their dismissal was illegal under Belgian law, even though their contracts were drawn up under Irish law, as their habitual workplace was Charleroi Brussels South airport.
The ECA fears that as airlines expand and merge across national boundaries, as foreseen under Third Package revisions, they could shift staff around to take advantage of less onerous regulatory regimes. It also fears safety oversight is being compromised by aircraft habitually being based outside their airline’s country of registration.
The association, which represents national pilots’ associations, wants to see the EC define any aircraft base as a principal centre of operation for mobile staff. “We would like to include into the Third Package reform clear rules saying what social rules apply based on principal place of business,” says Ignacio Plaza, ECA legal and industrial affairs representative. The association put forward the clause in recent open skies talks between the USA and the EU, but it was rejected as being a purely European economic issue, says Plaza.
ECA secretary general Philip von Schöppenthau says: “We are at the beginning of a big change in aviation – with transnational mergers – and the regulation currently favours the economic side of liberalisation, not the social side, so Europe needs to catch up.”
The Third Package is set to be reviewed next year and the ECA is one of many stakeholders to have submitted ideas, says the EC.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE / BRUSSELS
Source: Flight International
