Also from abcnyheter.no
Pilots are strongly provoked by management's claim that their flagged Irish subsidiary has contributed extra good to billion profits for the company after a summer where they themselves have set up on days off to spare passengers.
The reason for their extra effort is that the subsidiary SAS Ireland (SAIL) has not had enough pilots, which contributed to a series of cancellations for SAS this summer. 100,000 passengers were hit by the chaos.
"It can be hardly characterized as anything but a good bluff, writes the board of the Norwegian SAS Airways Association (NSF) in a letter to its members about the claim from the SAS management.
Also, CEO Rickard Gustafson's announcement that SAS management will probably use the executive board to put even more of its operations from Scandinavia to low-cost countries, threatening negotiated agreements with the employees, as they experience it, pilots will see red.
- At the same time, our highest boss is saying that our last small employment protection (Rolle Distribution Agreement and Lease Agreement) is going to be eliminated, directly provoking, SAS's pilots write in the internal member letter ABC News has.
"If there is no social dumping, I do not know," explains chairman Christian Laulund in the Norwegian SAS Airways Association to ABC News about plans to put more out of business to be competitive.
In short, it is said that SAS has established a company in Ireland where wages are well below the Scandinavian level, and the conditions are worse than in the parent company SAS. Pilots and cabin crew are employed on time-limited contracts in an Irish agency, CAE Parc, from which SAIL buys services from.
In July, ABC News revealed that pilots in SAIL had sent a warning letter to the SAS management, warning that more pilots had terminated or been on their way due to poor conditions in a market where there is a screaming need for pilots internationally .
Predicting a loss of 130 million
CEO Rickard Gustafson admitted that the SAS crisis was due to "specific challenges" with the crew in SAIL and another subcontractor, the Irish-registered airline, City Jet. He also owed the delayed delivery of Airbus flights and airline lines.
The SAS management acknowledged that they had been overly ambitious in their planning of the summer - despite the fact that they could hardly walk around in countless host shifts. As a result, the employees in Scandinavia eventually received double pay for holiday and day off until 30 August - while SAS has to pay out millions in return for passengers who had been traveling due to canceled flights.
SAS itself estimates that the summer's crisis has cost them 130 million kroner. That number fires the pilots off.It is not unreasonable to assume that the annual result for 2018 will be nearly half a billion weaker due to the start of SAIL and problems with our wetlease operators, which should be a mindset for those responsible, the pilot association writes in the letter to the members.
- Did not contribute a fuss
Manager Christian Laulund believes SAS has not calculated all the startup difficulties SAIL has incurred - such as recruitment costs, pilots training to fly Airbus and loss of reputation.
"SAIL has not contributed a boost to higher revenues, and how over a hundred million in additional expenses in the third quarter will provide lower costs, appear as a riddle, writes the NSF board to its members.
- There are strong words?
- Yes. Someone must explain to me how this company may have contributed to lower costs and higher revenues when the phase is as it is, says Laulund.