Dear Colleagues
As reported earlier BALPA met in conference with the CEO & COO of OSM along with union representatives from across the Norwegian network.
We can report from the UK that all crews will remain employed by OSM, and OSM are actively pursuing the Job Retention Scheme for their employees.
BALPA is in constant contact with OSM, and we aim to provide members with a more detailed update via a conference meeting tomorrow. Members will be invited to participate via an email tomorrow.
During the OSM meeting OSMs’ CEO Espen Høiby provided the following press release:
Statement regarding Norwegian’s termination of agreement with OSM Aviation
We regret that Norwegian has chosen to terminate the agreement with OSM Aviation. We have kept a close dialogue with the company and had hoped that the agreement could be continued in some form until the airline receives crisis funds from the Norwegian authorities. In the upcoming days, we will evaluate the consequences for OSM Aviation and our employees.
Our goal is to retain our skilled employees so that we may quickly provide Norwegian and other airlines with pilots and cabin crew as soon as government restrictions cease, and people once again will have the opportunity to travel. The airlines have suffered huge losses as a result of the covid-19 crisis.
We would like to emphasise that OSM Aviation has great sympathy with the difficult situation that Norwegian and the rest of the aviation and tourism industry are facing. We have done everything we can to support Norwegian and other customers after the outbreak of the covid-19 epidemic and have maintained a close and good cooperation around the suspension or layoffs of air crew in many countries.
We do not agree with Norwegian on the grounds of termination of the agreement with OSM Aviation. At this point, however, we focus primarily on Norwegian coming to an agreement with their owners and creditors so that the company may qualify for crisis assistance from the authorities and can continue working with OSM Aviation as an important partner.