Due to a works council meeting including flight attendants, technical workers, and other commercial employees, Austrian Airlines was forced to cancel roughly 52 flights to and from Vienna airport on Thursday.
In Austria, a works council meeting is a typical euphemism for what is known in other countries as a “strike” or “staff walkout.”
Following cutbacks implemented during the peak of the pandemic, the Vida trade union sought better working conditions and pay last week. Daniel Liebhart, a spokesman for the union, disputed the idea that Austria would be spared the upheaval that has engulfed the aviation industry in other nations in recent weeks.
“In Austria, the personnel situation is just as drastic,” Liebhart warned. “Here we will only come over the summer months with a bang, if at all. The fact that so much is going better in Austria is simply wrong.”
“It would be complete nonsense to believe that the managers in Austria have made smarter decisions,” Liebhart continued.
Short-term working loans from the government were tied to a promise that airlines and other aviation firms wouldn’t be allowed to fire employees during the pandemic when demand plummeted.
Austria, on the other hand, isn’t suffering from staff shortages as badly as some other countries because short-term working loans from the government were tied to a promise that airlines and other aviation firms wouldn’t be allowed to fire employees during the pandemic when demand plummeted.
Despite this, the Vida union claims that staffing levels have fallen and that workers are “reaching their limitations” in picking up the slack.
Austrian Airlines said it was “making every effort to minimize the impact on our guests,” according to a spokeswoman. The airline has no plans to cancel any long-haul flights, with European short-haul flights being the most affected.
