A deal has been reached to finish an hours-long strike by floor employees at Geneva airport, which had brought on quite a few flight delays and cancellations throughout the vacation rush.
“Victory!”, the SSP public sector union mentioned on X, previously Twitter, shortly earlier than noon.
The employees started their strike about eight hours earlier, at 4 am (0300 GMT), demanding “dignified working situations and first rate wages” from their employer, the Dubai Nationwide Air Journey Company (dnata).
The staff “have succeeded in repelling assaults on their retirement fund and in acquiring improved salaries, indemnities and additional time compensation”, SSP mentioned.
Dnata, an Emirati airport service supplier, confirmed in an announcement “the decision of the economic motion”, including that its workers had returned to work at midday.
Round 80 strikers had gathered in entrance of the airport earlier than daybreak, sporting shiny yellow security vests and brandishing union flags and posters with messages like: “Dnata is killing me” and “Precarious work means grounded flights”.
– Baggage left behind –
Geneva airport burdened Sunday that it had not been concerned within the dispute between dnata and its workers, and mentioned it regretted that the strike had gone forward whereas negotiations have been ongoing.
The airport mentioned six flights had been cancelled because of this, whereas some others had been delayed by greater than an hour.
As well as, “quite a lot of flights have been operated with out loading or offloading baggage”, the assertion mentioned.
Previous to the deal, airport spokesman Ignace Jeannerat informed AFP that solely flights assisted by dnata personnel had confronted issues.
“A majority of operations are going very easily,” he mentioned.
Dnata reportedly counts round 600 employees on the airport who deal with numerous floor operations, together with ticketing companies and baggage dealing with, for quite a lot of worldwide airways corresponding to British Airways, Air France and KLM.
Jeannerat mentioned dnata had been tasked with aiding 85 of the 417 flights scheduled for Sunday, a day when the Geneva airport was anticipating 52,000 passengers to journey via.
All flights dealt with by dnata’s competitor Swissport “are functioning usually… Zero issues”, he mentioned.
– Pay hike, bonuses –
Based on the union, round half of the dnata employees had agreed to participate in Sunday’s strike, demanding a five-percent wage hike.
After a number of rounds of negotiations, the events had agreed to the three-percent wage improve proposed by the corporate, SSP mentioned in an announcement.
The deal additionally supplies for a 500-Swiss-franc ($584) bonus in January, it mentioned, that means a complete rise of greater than 4 % on common.
SSP, which had accused dnata of exerting “stress” and threatening to fireside placing employees, introduced these threats had been dropped and the corporate had agreed to pay the employees for the hours they have been on strike.
Dnata mentioned Sunday’s settlement “reinforces our dedication to sustaining a powerful social partnership, fostering a cooperative working setting, and guaranteeing the continued success of our firm”.
nl/giv
Initially printed as Deal struck to finish Geneva airport strike
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