Israeli flag-carrier El Al is facing industrial action from its personnel towards the end of this month, heaping pressure on the airline as it battles to deal with the coronavirus impact.
The airline says it received, on 12 March, formal notification of a labour dispute and possible strike from 27 March onwards.
It follows the collapse of negotiations with the trade union organisation Histadrut, which has confirmed its declaration of the dispute.
“The grounds for the dispute is the impasse in negotiations between Histadrut and the [airline’s] management regarding steps to be take due to the coronavirus outbreak crisis,” it adds.
Histadrut claims El Al has shown “lack of good faith” by rejecting proposals put forward from the organisation and its work council on behalf of its staff.
It argues that El Al is seeking to use the crisis to force through “significant changes” which will violate collective agreements and other arrangements.
El Al warned in early March that it would need to “adjust its activities” to cope with a fall in revenues, and that it had started discussing reduction of salaries, cuts to the workforce, and freezing of hiring across the company, including at management level.
