Iberia and unions still have not reached agreement on processing one day before deadline | Companies

Iberia and the UGT and CCOO unions have still not reached an agreement on the ground handling (“handling”) workforce after the airline lost a tender announced by Aena at the country’s eight main airports and without a day that the airlines confirm. which operator will provide this service for their aircraft.

UGT sources confirmed to EFE this evening that negotiations will continue tomorrow, Wednesday. The two sides have been negotiating since the 9th, following a four-day strike during the Three Kings weekend called by unions to protest the plight of ground workers, who are to be subrogated to the winning companies at each airport.

Now time is running out because Iberia must tell Aena no later than tomorrow which processor it will choose at each of the airports where it lost the tender, or whether it will opt for “automatic processing” for the entire IAG group. it is owned jointly with British Airways, Vueling, Aer Lingus and Level.

The source of the protest is Iberia’s loss of ground handling contracts at the country’s eight main airports (all major except Madrid), which in principle forces the staff providing these services to be subrogated. the winning companies of a competition organized by the director of Aena Airport, which published the results in September last year.

On Monday, Iberia proposed creating a company with 100% of IAG’s capital to provide ground handling for all the Spanish-British group’s aircraft, the so-called “autohandling” it can offer despite losing concessions. This new company will absorb all of Iberia Airport Services’ employees (about 8,000 people), although Iberia has offered an early retirement program and benefit leave from age 56 to 1,727 people.

The company says this will not mean staff reductions as it intends to hire new staff at a later date. The UGT explained that the unions had asked that Iberia’s proposal only apply to the eight airports affected by the loss of its license, but that the company was “ready to talk only about all airports.” CCOO put it in the same sense.

Iberia initially ruled out the use of “auto-handling” because it explained that it was not profitable as it was a low-margin business and it was more efficient to contract with the winners of competitions at each of the airports. The airline’s latest proposal will allow employees to remain in the Iberia environment, as the vast majority of them will be engaged in “self-service”, and the new company will be able to try to attract new customers in the passenger service segment. liberalized, unlike ramp service (baggage management), which Aena decided in September.

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