The SkyTanking company, the ground handler of Ryanair at Eindhoven Airport, asks employees to cheat with delay codes. They must be entered in a system to pass on the reason for the delay of a flight. By entering other codes, the company would hide the staff shortage for their customer Ryanair. “They actually ask you to commit fraud on behalf of the company,” says an employee of Skytanking.
An example. The delay code 32 stands for a shortage of staff. By entering another delay code and moving the delay on a passenger in a wheelchair that needs guidance, Skytanking could hide the staff shortage for their customer Ryanair.
Omroep Brabant has held interviews with employees and former employees, and recognized messages in which managers of Skytanking ask for incorrect delay codes. If employees indicate that they do not want to send false information to the airline Ryanair, managers will continue to manage the use of a code other than the code indicating the understaffing.
Skytanking does this at Eindhoven Airport
Skytanking provides the entire process for travelers of Ryanair flights at Eindhoven Airport. When checking in the luggage up to the Vliegergeur door, people from Skytanking are standing to help passengers.
Behind the scenes, the company ensures that the luggage is loaded and unloaded and that the luggage ends up at the right destination, so that people can take it off the band there again.
“If the company that you hire does not have enough staff, there will be doubts about whether you have worked with the right undertaking. To prevent problems like that, SkyTanking wants to brush away the staff shortage, and keep Ryanair so satisfied. They actually ask you to commit fraud on behalf of the company,” says an employee of Skytanking, who wants to stay anonym.
Doubts about working methods
Another employee says that the staff often carries out such a dubious request from a manager from loyalty to sky tanking. “But more and more employees doubt this method. That way the staff shortage never comes to the surface,” he says.
Trade union FNV confirms the stories about cheating with the delay codes. The delay codes of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) are introduced to indicate why a flight is delayed.
“Skytanking then pretends they have everything under control and are not the reason for being delayed,” says FNV director Birte Nelen. Often airline companies and land dealers have made agreements in a contract about the percentage of flights that may be delayed. It is not clear how that is in contract between Skytanking and Ryanair.
No control
In addition, research by Omroep Brabant shows that Skytanking employees could not work at the airport a declaration a year and a half ago without a statement. A VGB is required to work at an airport. To get such a statement, the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) conducts a safety investigation into an employee.
For example, such an investigation is examined whether someone has a criminal record or has lived abroad for a longer period of time. Only when a VGB is awarded, does someone get a pass to work at the airport. When Skytanking started April last year at Eindhoven Airport, the airport gave the short -term permission to make employees work without VGB. They would have worked with a visitor’s pass, under the guidance of a colleague with a VGB.
Trade union FNV reported last year to the Labor Inspectorate that there were employees without VGB at work at Eindhoven Airport. According to the trade union, the Labor Inspectorate subsequently maintained this.
High workload and anxiety culture
An FNV report from the beginning of July shows that the staff shortage has a high workload and an unsafe working atmosphere in Skytanking. In addition, there were long queues at the airport in the last week and several flights were delayed by the understaffing at the luggage handler.
The safety of passengers and employees would even be at stake due to the staff shortage, according to FNV. That is why the trade union sent a letter to Eindhoven Airport and Schiphol Group on Friday morning, the owner of the Eindhoven airport. FNV demands that the number of Ryanair flights at Eindhoven Airport will be reduced in August.
Response Eindhoven Airport
Eindhoven Airport announced on Friday that they are talking to Skytanking about the tampering with delay codes. “We have also received signals that this is happening,” says a spokesperson. The airport will also discuss a concrete action plan for the staff shortage on Friday afternoon.
Skytanking, Ryanair and the Labor Inspectorate did not respond to questions about the tampering with delay codes and working without VGB.