Subject: Norwegian Airline asset’s dismissal and employees layoffs across Europe.
Dear Mrs. Vălean,
EURECCA wishes to urgently draw to your attention the worrying and specific conditions of the Norwegian airline crew employed in their operational bases in France and Italy. The Norwegian carrier, profoundly affected by the crisis brought upon by the COVID pandemic, has decided to restructure and has launched a process of controlled closures of the Italian and French workplaces. It will refocus its mission to concentrate on providing short haul flights from northern European connections, and will discontinue its long haul low cost model that allowed Norwegian to grow steadily over the past five years. The company’s attitude is questionable as its employees now suddenly find themselves without salary and without the interlocutors necessary to activate the state support to provide them with unemployment benefit. We believe that such a situation should not be allowed to happen! It is unthinkable that supposed investments first modify the structure of the transport system of a country, then it emerges that the project can be dismantled overnight without taking into account the effects on employees and customers. We need a law to be passed that binds carriers investing in a European Union country to providing long-term economic guarantees for their investments, on pain of losing equal conditions with virtuous carriers. It is now crucial to take care of the former Norwegian employees who are now left without jobs and a future.
Yours sincerely,
Annette Groeneveld
EurECCA President
Letter to the Transport Commissioner Mrs Vălean (PDF)
