Iberia commences dismissal procedure for 3,807 members of staff

The Spanish airline Iberia has commenced procedures to dismiss 3,807 people (19% of its current workforce) and has asked workers unions not to go ahead with the announced 15 day strikes in protest of the dismissals. According to union sources, the departments most affected would be the ground staff (about 2,640 people), followed by cabin crew (around 760 staff) and the pilots (about 320 members of staff) and the dismissals will take place between 14th March and 31st December 2013.

From the ground staff who are affected, 360 are employees at the Madrids Barajas airport, 470 belong to ‘other airports’. 40 other people belong to the cargo department, 390 from Iberias ‘commercial department’ and 150 staff in ‘finance’. The same workers union sources explained that dismissals also affect about 550 employees in the maintenance division and over 70 people in the Human Resources department.

Iberia had initially suggested a reduction of 4,500 jobs but today announced its new plans to their employees, union representatives and the Ministry of Employment and Social Security. From today, Iberia and the unions have a consultation period of 30 days to negotiate.

Todays news comes after three months of unsuccessful negotiations between Ibera and union representatives and in which the company has put on the table alternatives to achieve profitability targets without resorting to layoffs. Iberia recalled that between 2008 and September 2012 the company had lost over €850 million, which has forced them to take “drastic” ‘cost reduction’ and ‘improvement measures’ to continue to be viable. Despite the announcement, the company says it has the “best position is to reach an agreement” and that it will attend all meetings with union representatives, despite the announcement of a 15 day strike by the workers unions. The company has therefore requested that the unions “leave the customers out of the infighting” as things have to be resolved “at the negotiating table and not through strikes that aggravate the losses of the company.”

Iberia has said that it will “put all measures in their power to mitigate the effects of strikes in February and March”.