2023-12-24 09:25:19
Many ground service employees at Geneva Airport announced their strike on Sunday, according to their union, due to a dispute with the Dubai National Air Transport Association (Dnata), which employs them, in a move expected to slow down travel during the holiday season.
Dnata employees, who handle regarding a quarter of traffic through Geneva’s Cointrin International Airport, began their strike at 4 a.m. (3 GMT) on Sunday.
The work stoppage will slow down travel, which reaches its peak during Christmas, when regarding 60,000 people are expected to travel through the airport on Sunday.
dnata employees handle various ground services, such as ticketing and baggage handling, for a number of international airlines, including British Airways, Air France and KLM.
The union, which has threatened this action since the beginning of the week, said that the duration of the strike would be evaluated “hour by hour,” according to the “20 Minut” online news site.
The workers are demanding that the Emirati airport services company, Dnata, increase their salaries by five percent.
They also demand that the company provide additional wages for some jobs that require physical effort, which Dnata has refused to do, according to the union’s representative, Jamshed Pouranbir, to the website.
Dnata offered to increase salaries by three percent, and also agreed to abandon a controversial plan to reduce contributions to employee retirement funds, but that was not enough to satisfy workers.
Dnata representative Alexander Koenig told the site that the company remains “determined to reach an agreement,” adding that it would consider any work stoppage “unlawful.”
The news site reported that the union denounced at the same time the “pressure” exerted by the company, claiming that it threatened to dismiss employees who went on strike.
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