An agreement has been reached, ending the strike by workers at Geneva Airport

“Victory!” – the trade union SSP of the striking sector announced on the “X” social network shortly before noon.

The workers started the strike at around 4 am. local time (5 a.m. Lithuanian time), demanding from their employer, the service company DNATA (Dubai National Air Transport Association), “non-degrading working conditions and decent wages”.

The workers “succeeded in fending off attacks on their pension fund and obtaining better wages, damages and overtime compensation,” the SSP said.

DNATA confirmed in a statement that the protests had ended, adding that its workers had returned to work at midday.

Around 80 picketers gathered outside the airport before dawn, wearing bright yellow safety vests and waving union flags and placards with slogans such as “DNATA is killing me” and “Unsafe work means frozen flights”.

Left luggage

Geneva Airport stressed on Sunday that it was not involved in the dispute between DNATA and the workers and regretted that the strike took place despite ongoing negotiations.

The airport said six flights were canceled and some delayed by more than an hour.

In addition, “several flights were operated without baggage loading or unloading,” the report said.

Before the agreement was reached, airport spokesman Ignace Jeannerat told AFP that the only problems were with flights handled by DNATA staff.

“Most operations are very smooth,” he assured.

The airport reportedly employs around 600 DNATA staff who handle various ground operations, including baggage handling, for various international airlines such as British Airways, Air France and KLM.

Jeannerat said DNATA was tasked with handling 85 of the 417 flights scheduled for Sunday. On this day, 52,000 passengers were expected to arrive at Geneva Airport. passengers.

Salary increase, bonuses

According to the union, about half of DNATA workers agreed to participate in Sunday’s strike, demanding a five percent pay rise.

After several rounds of negotiations, the parties agreed on the company’s proposed three percent wage increase, SSP said in a statement.

The agreement also provides for a bonus of 500 Swiss francs (530 euros) to be paid in January, an increase of more than four percent on average.

The SSP, which had accused DNATA of pressuring and threatening to fire striking workers, announced that those threats had been dropped and the company had agreed to pay workers for hours on strike.

DNATA said Sunday’s agreement “reinforces our commitment to maintaining a strong social partnership, fostering a collaborative work environment and ensuring the continued success of our company.”