Agreement on Guarantees for Laid-off Employees - What is airBaltic Hiding from the Union?

On Friday, August 14, the union met with the management of airBaltic. According to union representatives, airBaltic expressed its willingness to fulfill the minimum established by labor law - to notify the union of the already made decision on collective layoffs and to consult only on this decision. At the same time, no agreement was reached on access to the business plan information, nor was the issue of the content of the confidentiality agreement resolved. The union emphasizes that consultations conducted without complete and timely information about the business plan cannot be substantive and do not meet the purpose of consultations established by labor law and European Union (EU) legislation - to reach an agreement based on a common understanding of the actual situation. The Latvian Aviation Union (LAP) calls on the management of airBaltic to comply with other legal conditions that provide for an agreement with the union. Labor law stipulates that an employer planning to conduct collective layoffs must timely begin consultations with employee representatives to agree on the number of employees subject to collective layoffs, the process of collective layoffs, and the social guarantees for laid-off employees. The law also provides that during consultations, the employer and employee representatives consider all possibilities to avoid collective layoffs and to mitigate the consequences of such layoffs. The union insists on the necessity of signing an agreement with clearly defined guarantees and a set of social measures to avoid a repeat of the experience from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when guarantees for individual layoffs were offered to employees only if they signed an agreement to terminate their employment. Additionally, the reinstatement of laid-off employees was not carried out according to the terms of the agreement but was used as a new selection process, and those employees who were undesirable to management were not reinstated. LAP informs that airBaltic proposed to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the consultation process. The restrictions provided in the proposed version are so comprehensive and paralyzing for the union that no union would be able to sign it. It has already been reported that the board of airBaltic approved a business plan that includes attracting temporary financing of 225 million euros to improve liquidity. It also stipulates that by the end of 2026, the airline will operate 36 Airbus A220-300 aircraft compared to 54 aircraft currently.