Contractors worked on illegal terms and conditions
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The now defunct airline Primera acted illegally when it employed pilots based in Denmark as contractors without giving them contractual terms. This is how it sounds in a judgment from the Labor Court. The ruling is a victory in principle and may make it more difficult for companies to make similar constructions in the future, it sounds from FPU.
If a pilot is employed as a contractor based in Denmark, he is entitled to a contractual salary and terms of employment in accordance with the applicable Danish collective agreement. This is the ruling from the Labor Court, which has ruled on a matter of principle on social dumping in the airline Primera.
When the Icelandic airline Primera once flew charter routes, about half of its pilots were employed as so-called "self-employed contractors". They received neither pension nor holiday and were not paid if they had more than 10 sick days a year.
We had no doubt that the pilots who were self-employed contractors were also entitled to the same terms as the permanent employees. We considered it to be a creative recruitment structure that was to circumvent the agreement that Primera had signed with FPU. We are therefore really happy that the Labor Court now gives us the right that there was a breach of agreement, ”says Thilde Waast, chairman of FPU.
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Significance in principle
Primera's contractors were employed through a staffing company on Guernsey, and the company did not believe that they were Danish employees and should have collective bargaining terms, even though FPU and Primera had signed a collective agreement. FPU therefore filed a lawsuit against Primera in 2018 to get the Labor Court to assess whether the employment structure was legal.
The new decision may have significance in principle, assesses FPU's chairman Thilde Waast.
"The ruling shows that there was a breach of contract, and this may have implications for other companies that are speculating in making similar constructions. This applies both in Denmark, and in addition, we at FPU will also make sure that you become aware of the ruling in the rest of Europe. ”
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Thilde Waast believes that the verdict can be particularly decisive in the uncertain time that has arisen in the wake of the corona crisis.
"It is extremely important that we now have this verdict, because we with corona are in a situation where a lot of pilots will have to be re-employed at some point, but where there will probably be fewer jobs. Some companies will no doubt see their cuts to forcing pressured and unemployed pilots into constructions that belong nowhere. Now we have a ruling that clearly indicates that this so-called contractor construction is illegal. "Concrete significance for previous contractors
One of the pilots who was employed as a contractor in Primera is Anders Moesby. He says that in many ways there was no difference between the daily work of those who were contractors and those on contract.
“The difference was that we got our pay from a drawer company on Guernsey and that we did not have the usual employee rights as a pension and paid holiday. Primera determined our working hours, and we communicated with them about everything, ”says Anders Moesby.
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In addition to the principled significance, the judgment in the Primera case may also have a concrete significance for Anders Moesby and the colleagues who were employed as contractors at the time of the bankruptcy. The FPU considers that they must be regarded as if they were under the agreement. Thus, they are entitled to coverage from the Employees' Guarantee Fund (LG), and FPU has therefore asked LG to resume processing of the notifications that LG received from Primera's contractors.
"We have been looking forward to some kind of justice for a long time. Hopefully, the ruling allows the approximately 40 contractors who have reported cases to LG to receive some form of compensation for the notice period. And then an emphasis has been placed on the fact that this type of employment is not permissible when there is a parallel agreement. The big animal in the revelation is if it can be a lever that can prevent the use of contractors and the division of staff into an A and B team, ”says Anders Moesby.