Air traffic controllers in France have been given the right to show up to work three hours late after the government abandoned plans to force them to show up for work on time.
Emmanuel Macron’s government has granted airport staff the right to stay in bed during their shifts amid a dispute with the National Union of Air Traffic Controllers, which threatened to ask its members to leave before the Paris Olympics. .
Controllers have high salaries, up to £93,000 a year, and work 32 hours a week, but can earn 25 per cent less than this, according to French media, with some reportedly They go on vacation when they plan to work.
Staff will now receive a pay rise of up to £15,500 and additional benefits, including an extra 18 days off a year and a pension at age 59, thanks to a deal signed by the government, in what is widely seen as a coup. State for the union.
It comes after planned strikes, which were called off before going ahead, led to hundreds of flights being canceled at the last minute in April, causing holiday chaos for tens of thousands of customers.
Controllers have high salaries of up to £93,000 a year and work 32 hours a week. File image showing the air traffic controller at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport.
Around a quarter of all flights in France were delayed last year, 24.31 per cent, slightly lower than in the UK, where the proportion of delayed flights is 25.39 per cent.
Amid strike threats last month, cancellation figures reached their highest level “in 20 years”, according to Augustin de Romanet, director general of ADP, the company that manages the capital’s airports.
French ministers wanted to force controllers to come to work when scheduled as part of new reforms aimed at improving productivity.
But there was a breakdown in negotiations with unions over the planned reform, with workers demanding it be accompanied by high wages and threatening a strike.
Amid fears it would cause travel chaos during this summer’s Olympics, when hundreds of thousands more visitors are expected, ministers felt forced to sign a deal last week, which was leaked to French media. .
The deal will cost airlines more than £60 million over the next four years, Tthe times reports.
News of the agreement comes after a series of revelations by the French media, which spoke to air traffic controllers about the realities of the job.
French police officers stand guard outside Terminal 1 at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games.
One of them told Le Parisien that they were told they would “be paid very well and have a lot of free time,” but that they had to accept the level of responsibility that comes with the job when they are working.
They added that they check with their colleagues to see how busy it is before starting the 9 a.m. shift and going back to bed if it’s not too busy.
Another anonymous air traffic controller said Pointa news magazine, that managers release people if they don’t come, as long as they are “contactable if there is a problem.”
Planned strikes caused hundreds of flights to be canceled at the last minute in April (file image shows BA plane at Charles de Gaulle)
“Sometimes we found ourselves calling guys who had gone skiing or abroad… Then you have other authorizations where no one counts on you and you can go to the Seychelles if you want.”
They added that it’s rarer to be able to “skip an entire shift” at smaller airports, where they said workers “call each other to tell each other to come later, or else they’ll release us early.”
“The planning is between us,” they said. “The hierarchy really has nothing to say.”