For a few tens by plane to London, Vienna or Barcelona: dozens of travelers fly annually for stunt prices from Eindhoven Airport to cities in Europe. To keep the prices of airline tickets low, airlines must save costs and according to FNV Air Shift, airport employees are the victims. The result: a high workload and anxiety culture such as the SkyTanking company, the ground handler of Ryanair, is the case. “Ryanair is a leader in exploiting people,” says Stijn Jansen of the FNV.
The workload is towering throughout the entire aviation sector according to the FNV, because airlines want to offer cheap tickets and those costs have to be earned back somewhere. “Only at the costs for the staff can you make the most profit. That competition, we call that the race down is worthwhile in the entire sector,” says Jansen.
Do consumers also have a role in this? The FNV thinks so. This way, consumers can wonder what it actually costs to fly cheaply. “For example, if you book a ticket, see whether cabin crew from the airline has a collective agreement. The responsibility is not only with the consumer, but try to contribute,” he advises.
In this video we will explain why the pressure in the aviation sector is so high:
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Nevertheless, the workload at Skytanking is very extreme compared to other companies. According to the FNV, this is partly due to the requirements that airline Ryanair sets for the company. “Ryanair is really a company that is a leader in exploiting people,” says Jansen.
Due to the high workload and anxiety culture at Skytanking, Thomas* decided to give up his dream job in aviation. “You are just a slave. We have had colleagues who went to managers crying with the message: this is no longer possible and we need more people,” he says.
The stories of employees were at the beginning of this month for the company to conduct an internal investigation into the corporate culture and the high workload.
“We try to listen to everyone, to investigate it internally and act properly. This way we look at whether we can hire an external confidential adviser, but we also have a confidential reporting tool That everyone can use, “promises operational director of Skytanking, Sascha von Wolfersdorf.
“Afraid of losing their job.”
FNV doubts whether such a tool is enough. The many temporary contracts in the sector also maintain anxiety culture according to the trade union. “The aviation sector is seasonal. That is why many people have a temporary contract, but these cause fear of losing their jobs,” says Jansen.
Nevertheless, according to FNV, Eindhoven also has a responsibility to guarantee the safety of airport employees. “They are now taking the signals about Skytanking very seriously. But they could have thought in advance about which companies they allow at the airport and what pressure that gives to staff. We also wonder: why do you let two departments compete with each other at such a small airport?”
In addition to SkyTanking employees, there are other employees at the airport who experience a high workload. For example, Omroep Brabant spoke with employees who do the cleaning at Eindhoven Airport.
“You notice a shift in the mentality.”
“You notice that there is a shift of mentality. In the early years you had to deal with managers who had their principles. ‘Our company is not in each other and we have an ethics to keep high’, but I have seen that in recent years changing to detriment,” says an employee who cleans aircraft cleans anonymously.
According to him, a few years ago, employees had twenty minutes to clean a plane with four or five people. “That has already been reduced to nine or ten minutes with two or three people. Then you will automatically get that the workload is rising,” he says.
The SkyTanking company says in any case that the workload is declining because they hire new employees and employees are back from vacation. The FNV also slowly sees the first improvements in business operations. “But sky tanking really comes from very far and it is more extreme than in other places in the sector,” says Jansen.
Ryanair and Eindhoven Airport did not respond to questions from Omroep Brabant.
*Thomas is a fictitious name. The real name is known to the editors.