Icelandic airline: Icelandair fired all of the flight attendants – well, the climb-down follows

The Icelandic airline Icelandair had announced to lay off all of its flight attendants and temporarily, the pilots for in-flight service to use. This was the result of failed wage negotiations, reported the largest daily newspaper in the country, “Fréttablaðið”, on Friday. For weeks, the national airline negotiated with the domestic flight attendants-GewerkschaftFlugfreyjufélag Íslands (FFÍ) on new collective bargaining agreements for shipboard personnel. Now, Icelandair rowing back, after new negotiations.

After further talks between the Airline and the Union, the airline announced that in the night of Sunday, a new collective agreement negotiated for had been. This will be presented on Monday, FFÍ-members. The vote on the new agreement by the end of thus, on 27. July. In the new negotiating process had come to an agreement, the grant at the same time a higher efficiency of work processes, without the salary of the staff would be reduced, it said. “I sincerely hope that the members of FFÍ agree to the new contract,” said the CEO Bogi Nils Bogason on Sunday.

An agreement already seemed a few weeks ago in perspective: at the end of June, both parties agreed to a collective agreement with lower wages for flight attendants. However, the contract failed in the ballot among the trade unionists. Only 24 percent of the FFÍ-members agreed with the result of collective bargaining – the majority, around 73 per cent, rejected the Treaty.

pilots not in the Service

On Friday, the Management of the stock exchange informed-listed Airline that the negotiations had failed. The hard consequence: Icelandair wanted to dismiss all the employees in the company flight attendants. In a statement the airline said: “The goal was to ensure the long-term competitiveness of the company and to secure at the same time, remuneration and working conditions of the cabin crew.” An amicable solution could not be found.

From Monday to pilots should apply originally, the responsibility for safety on Board the aircraft, and thus, temporarily, the service duties of the flight attendants perform. This is apparently from the table. The services on Board would have been limited for this reason to a Minimum, as the Airline announced on Friday. After the renegotiation in the night to Sunday, the cabin crew should now remain still for the service on Board set.