European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and European Cockpit Association (ECA) call on the European Commission to reconsider one of the conditions attached to the approval of state aid for Lufthansa Group, as it would benefit some of the most notorious airlines that continue to lower working standards around Europe.
ETF and ECA have been following with great concern the discussion on state aid to the Lufthansa Group and the associated conditions of the European Commission. According to media reports, one of the conditions is a hand-over of Lufthansa’s take-off and landing rights (“slots”) to other market players. That effectively means that the slots will be awarded to some of the companies who have openly engaged in wage and social dumping across Europe for decades, distorting competition on the Single Market and harming labour standards.
As unions that keep fighting the severe negative effects of bogus self-employment, precarious broker agency contracts, salaries under the threshold of poverty, union-busting and even violation of labour law, we cannot accept this. We call on the European Commission to reconsider its decision on conditions attached to the approval of state aid for Lufthansa Group. As opposed to market-based conditionality, we strongly support conditionality based on social responsibility and respect for trade unions as well as environmental sustainability. Market sanctions should be deployed in respect of support given to airlines that damage society, staff and passengers, not those who act in good faith.
More details are available in the letter ETF and ECA addressed to the EU Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, available here.