The airline Iberia is planning to implement overall salary reductions of 20% for its pilots and increase productivity by 25% in order to remain competitive.
The pilots are the only group who, after two and a half years of negotiations, have failed to enter into any new agreement. Iberia says the situation has also been ‘severely aggravated’ by the industrial action by SEPLA pilots which has cost the company €3 million per day.
The reductions, made within the existing labour framework, will bring the salaries inline with other airlines and reality, according to Iberia.
The reduction of unit costs will occur as a result of a wage cut of 12% and other measures which will provide an additional 8% reduction in the labour costs of Iberia pilots. These additional measures include the elimination of automatic salary increases linked to the IPC (Consumer Price Index).
To increase productivity, the airline intends to increase the activity of the pilots within the limits prescribed by law. Iberia wants to set a limit off 900 flight hours per year (the current collective agreement is for between 820 and 850 hours, although the actual is around 650 hours) and abolish extra holidays gained through length of service.
The proposals only relate to Iberia pilots.