Brussels, 28/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European social partners of the civil aviation sector have signed an agreement on working hours, which covers 1000,000 members of the mobile staff (30,000 pilots and 70,000 cabin crew). The agreement limits the annual working time to 2,000 hours (instead of 2,304 hours set by the general directive on adjustment of working hours). Flying time is reduced to 900 hours, which is less than what the legislation in force in certain Member States provides for. The agreement ensures that all mobile staff have health and safety protection adjusted to the kind of work. It also contains provisions concerning a minimum of 7 rest days per month and 96 days per year. This is the fifth agreement of its kind to be proposed by the Commission to the Council, if social partners wish (the four other agreements relating to temporary work, fixed term work contracts, parental leave and the postal sector).
The social partners concerned here are: AEA - the Association of European Airlines, representing national companies; the ERA - Europe Regions Airline Associations; the IACA - the International Air Carrier Association; the ETF - European Transport Workers Federation, representing cabin crew; and the ECA - European Cockpit Association, for pilots.
Welcoming the signing of the agreement, the European Commissioner responsible for social policy, Anna Diamantopoulou, felt that "Social partners in the civil aviation sector demonstrate their ability to take the lead in promoting new patterns of working life and in modernising the contractual framework for the organisation of work. It is hoped that the agreement will provide the political momentum to continue such engaging actions within the newly created Social Dialogue Committee in the sector".
EUROPE recalls that the transport sector has been excluded from the scope of Directive 93/104/EC on working hours. The Commission had urged the social partners to make discussions move forward on the duration of work at European level - a debate that it hoped to encourage through the publication in July 1997 of a White Paper on the sectors and activities excluded from the directive (see EUROPE of 16 July, pp. 6-7). In accordance with the Commission approach, sectoral legislation, preferably based on contractual agreements between European social partners, may complete the horizontal directive to cater for sector specific characteristics. Such agreements have already been concluded in the railways and maritime transport sectors (30 September 1998). The maritime agreement has, at the request of the relevant social partners of that sector, been turned into a directive (Directive 99/63/EC).