On Monday 14 March, members of the European Parliament’s Transport Committee (‘TRAN’) debated the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) report on interdependencies between civil aviation safety and socio-economic factors.
The new version of the EASA report, which is required to be produced every 3 years, looks specifically at the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and wage developments in the aviation sector, alongside their link to air transport safety.
Although EASA Director General Patrick Ky’s detailed presentation of the report was well received – far exceeding the time allocated by TRAN Committee chair Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France) – a number of MEPs expressed their regret that the document was seen to be weak on employment conditions and safety issues.
“We don’t always see the consequences of accidents in reality. There is no correlation between this data and improved safety; no direct link to safety”, said Barbara Thaler (EPP, Austria).
“This risk report does not promise anything concrete. Parliament has repeatedly called for more attention to be paid to people on temporary contracts – those people who dare not report incidents for fear of losing their job”, said Ciarán Cuffe (Greens/EFA, Ireland).
Furthermore, the issue of working conditions, job insecurity and the development of practices such as ‘pay-to-fly’ took up part of the discussions.
“Precarious conditions can be linked to the issue of security. When I read the report, I don’t see what measures have been taken to ensure that this has no real impact on safety. No real recommendations have been made”, said Petar Vitanov (S&D, Bulgaria).
“We were waiting for a slightly more comprehensive report. We get the impression that no concrete actions have been foreseen”, summarised Isabel García Muñoz (S&D, Spain). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)