A union of flight attendants on Thursday called for measures to prevent the low-cost Spanish airline Volotea to replace striking employees, during an interim hearing at the Nantes court.
An angry union
The National Union of Commercial Flight Crew (SNPNC) accuses the airline of taking advantage of the obligation that air transport employees have to notify their employer of their participation in a strike movement 48 hours in advance to call for replacements.
“The specific rules put in place to regulate the right to strike in air transport have a single purpose: that passengers can know which flights will be disrupted. Under no circumstances should they be used to know which employees to replace,” argued SNPNC lawyer Fiodor Rilov.
On strike for a week
In strike mid-April to protest once morest “precarious” working conditions and “insufficient” remuneration, the company’s flight personnel renewed the movement from Saturday. “The right to strike is a constitutional right. We must respect it and we respect it. At no time was there a sprain,” argued Volotea lawyer Thomas Fernandez-Boni during the hearing.
According to Me Rilov, the airline, whose head office is in Spain, would also have brought in employees from other countries of the European Union to replace its French staff. “This is a decision that must give rise to a declaration prior to secondment. If there is none, as we suspect, then the staff also works in France illegally, “said the lawyer, referring to” concealed work “.
