Danger of Wage Dumping at Swiss

With a protest note, the unions SEV-GATA, Kapers, Aeropers, VPOD and the Commercial Association protest against the use of airplanes and staff from Air Baltic at Swiss.

Protest note concerning the wet lease agreement for Air Baltic:

«Dear Mr. Vranckx,
dear Mr. Binkert,
dear Mr. Goudarzi
Last week, Swiss management has decided to enter into a wet lease agreement with Air Baltic. We have been informed of this decision by you shortly before the press release and have been presented with a fait accompli. As social partners, we find this approach strange.
After layoffs and fluctuation, some areas of the company are heavily understaffed. In recent weeks and months, there have been numerous discussions with the trade unions and workers' associations to defuse these problems. There was never any talk of a wet lease partner from the EU. However, as stated on the intranet, the cooperation was planned a long time ago. With this decision, we are now presented with a new situation that we condemn in the strongest possible terms.
With Helvetic Airways, an anti-union company that denies its employees the protection of a CLA, we have already had a wet lease partner at the Swiss site for several years. Due to low wages, this company is no longer able to provide the necessary personnel for wet lease flights. The trade unions and employee associations have also already warned of
this problem. Swiss' personnel planning, which took countermeasures too late, has now put Swiss in a situation in which it is not able to carry out the planned production. Now Air Baltic aircraft and crews are deployed, which significantly undercut our cost structure. Wage dumping such as this is unacceptable. Now that all personnel groups have made a massive contribution to getting through the crisis, we can now watch our jobs being outsourced. Therefore, we call on you as management:

  • To conclude wet lease contracts only with partners who have socially acceptable terms and conditions of employment and collective employment contracts
  • Comparison of wage costs for all third-party providers: to be submitted to the social partners
  • Establish significant improvement of employment conditions in Switzerland in order to be attractive on the labour market

Finally, we ask you to revise this decision on the wet lease agreement with Air Baltic, as the cooperation undermines our social partnership.
We ask you to discuss the further development of the agreement with Air Baltic in a timely manner.

Best regards,
SEV-GATA, kapers Cabin Crew Union, AEROPERS, VPOD, Swiss Commercial Association »