BALPA raises safety fears over easyJet’s redundancy criteria
Pilots union BALPA has raised fears for the safety of easyJet pilots after the airline outlined its redundancies criteria.
According to the union, EasyJet management has told pilot reps that they intend to use ‘sickness’ as a key component in choosing who loses their job.
The airline plans to make over 700 pilots redundant due to the impact of the pandemic.
BALPA says retrospectively punishing these pilots for being sick or unfit to fly is outrageous and could significantly harm easyJet’s previously successful and well-regarded flight safety culture.
Brian Strutton, BALPA general secretary, said: "Flight safety is built on a culture of openness and not fear of repercussions. This is a well understood and fundamental tenet for everyone involved in ensuring our skies are safe.
"It is unnecessary and wrong that easyJet is intending to use sickness as a stick to beat its safety-critical staff. easyJet has in the past rightly encouraged pilots to report in sick or fatigued if they are unfit to fly – that is in everyone’s best interest. Now to turn around and say that doing the right thing means you may lose your job could have a chilling effect on the safety culture in easyJet from now on.
"Not only that, but the time frame easyJet intend to use includes the early coronavirus period when some people were getting sick or having to shield themselves and their families. Should these people be punished by losing their jobs too?
"We have yet to see any justification for the scale of job losses that easyJet has proposed. We will continue to fight for every job and will resist any move to use the Covid crisis to undermine easyJet’s reputation as a decent employer."
A spokeswoman for easyJet said: "We would never put forward proposals which would compromise safety as we have an industry leading safety culture, as BALPA acknowledges.
"Safety is our number one priority and we are focused on doing what is right for the long term health of the company and our people so we can protect jobs going forward."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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