Where was CEO Dick Benschop when chaos broke out at Schiphol at the end of April? Where had he started when the long queues for travelers due to lack of staff started?
“A captain must remain on the ship,” PVV member Dion Graus headlined Tuesday in the House of Representatives, where Benschop came to account. Not on a whisper boat in The Hague with his dog on his lap, like a photo in The Telegraph showed.
No, Benschop was not there and during the crisis at his airport preferred to drink champagne in Davos and Washington, MP Wybren van Haga also sneered. Did Benschop himself think that he could remain credible?
While listening and co-writing, the CEO of Schiphol, former PvdA State Secretary for Foreign Affairs (1998-2002) and former CEO of Shell Netherlands, shook his head slightly in disapproval.
Hey, that’s where Tjeerd de Groot (D66), chairman of the hearing about the problems at Schiphol, intervened. “We have guests and we treat our guests as such.”
nice message
It was just such a beautiful message that the two invited guests, CEO Benschop and FNV negotiator Joost van Doesburg, wanted to bring to the House of Representatives: a social agreement in outline, with which strikes have been averted for the time being. It is an agreement for the short and long term, for baggage handlers, security guards, bus transport at Schiphol and cleaners.
“Something very unique”, Van Doesburg even called it. A surcharge on the various collectively agreed wages, with which the hourly wage would in many cases rise to 14 euros gross or more. Now a baggage handler with a flex contract, who “has to lift twenty thousand kilos of suitcases a day”, sometimes earns only 10.69 euros gross, according to Van Doesburg. Then you must be very fascinated by the airport to want to do irregular, heavy work in kerosene air, he said.
Read the article Why is there chaos at Schiphol again?
For the past decade, Schiphol has been fixated on growth and cutbacks, Benschop acknowledged. That was largely before taking office in 2018, he added. And a lot has indeed gone wrong in the last period, he said. There were more travelers than expected, fewer security guards than agreed, and that’s how chaos would have started – just like last summer.
‘Pain’
“That hurts,” said Benschop, as he often answered critical questions. It’s not like “our company, our Schiphol” should be.
But the social agreement, about which more details will follow on Wednesday, marks a new Schiphol, Benschop said. The Schiphol of the future offers better working conditions for staff, better service for travelers and will become ‘a frontrunner’ in sustainability, he explained.
FNV member Van Doesburg just wanted to reflect on Schiphol today. He described it in union jargon as a sickening company, with subcontractors competing in “a race to the bottom”. “At Schiphol you become poor while working and nobody is actually rich while sleeping.”
The social agreement therefore also concerns the free tendering of work at Schiphol. For example, Benschop is “not happy” with the number of companies that handle the luggage, he said (six, according to the FNV).
Cancel flights
VVD member Daniel Koerhuis wanted to know whether Schiphol can handle the summer crowds – and then without canceling 30 percent of the flights.
Even with the social agreement, there will still be long queues this summer due to staff shortages, Van Doesburg expected.
Flights will have to be canceled to make the crowds manageable, Benschop confirmed, but probably not 30 percent. Schiphol would also look into whether flights could be transferred to other airports.
MP Van Haga still wanted to know whether Benschop was not thinking of resigning and if so, when? No, the CEO is highly motivated to solve the problems.