Croatia Airlines crew complains of harassment

Tension between cabin crew and management continues

The trade union of Croatia Airlines cabin crew has complained its members are being harassed by the Croatian Health Insurance Fund and are reporting to work sick out of fear of losing their jobs. The Insurance Fund recently launched an investigation into why so many of the carrier’s cabin crew members took sick leave over the May Day public holiday, forcing the airline to cancel over a dozen flights. “Great pressure has been put on doctors and my colleagues who are showing up to work with a fever and sickness”, Tamara Herceg, from the union’s media centre says. She adds some pilots were sent home after showing up to work with a high temperature and nausea.

The trade union says those that are sick were harassed by both the airline’s management and investigators to prove they are in fact ill, while others reported to work out of fear they would lose their jobs. The union outlined several examples of crew members forced to undergo additional examination and added that doctors are no longer willing to diagnose their patients working for Croatia Airlines. “Employee rights are also being trampled upon with the management cutting down on holidays and non working days. They are purposely assigning staff to do flights on their days off. Those who do not show up to work risk losing their jobs”, the union concludes.

A very public spat between Croatia Airlines’ management and pilots and cabin crew began several weeks ago after the two sides failed to agree on the terms of a new collective agreement. The quarrel culminated last week when over forty cabin crew members failed to show up to work, claiming they were sick. The management branded the action as a “blank protest” against the new collective agreement. Cabin crew have not ruled out the possibility of going on an official strike in the coming period. Previous industrial action at the airline took place in 2010 and 2012 while a strike was narrowly averted in 2011 after a deal to increase pay was reached between the management and employees.

Comments

  1. Anonymous01:05

    At length, Croatia Airlines, as well as Adria, will be bought by some Arab or other power. Little by little we all in "EU". But what about EU? What monster is going to take over them?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous09:08

    As of June the State will not be able to support them anymore. Interesting to see what is going to happen!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12:21

    I’m flying with OU soon and getting quite worried about this entire situation. Is there any chance they will reach an agreement or will the crew go on strike?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:26

      OU changed my April flight twice and eventually I cancelled it free of charge and booked with another airline. Still waiting to be reimbursed, up to 13 weeks they said. Ouch!

      Delete
  4. Anonymous12:22

    I’m on the side of the crew actually. You can’t reduce pay every single year, cut down on holidays and other benefits, threaten your workers with sackings and expect them to be happy. Kucko and his team will ruin the airline. Actually they will just continue where the previous management left off.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous12:27

    Does anyone know what happened to Jat airways flight from Vienna last night? It landed in Timisoara before returning to BEG...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:15

      Does anyone know what happened to Istanbul flight, it landed around 02 in the morning, while it was scheduled around 20-21.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous17:27

      Nowadays, especially since the summer season started, the BEG airport seems to be operating round-the-clock.

      Delete
    3. Doot21:25

      like someone else said in here, massive storm last night

      Delete
  6. Anonymous13:12

    Massive storm in Belgrade last night

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous17:05

      Was it that massive that an ATR cannot land?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:20

      Well, yes.

      Delete
  7. JU520 BEGLAX17:31

    Ernst&Young: Slovenia Record-Holder in Corruption

    Bribery and corruption practices are widespread in the European business world, but the infamous record-holder in this respect is Slovenia, which has the highest share of managers who deem bribery a common business practice, a survey conduced by auditing firm Ernst & Young shows.

    The share of managers who believe that bribery and corrupt practices happen widely in business in their country is at 96% for Slovenia, which is the highest share in among all countries involved in the Survey.
    In Europe, Slovenia is followed by Croatia with 90% and Ukraine with 85%. Corruption is the least widespread in Switzerland, where only 10% of managers assessed that corruption is very much present in their business environment.
    The European average stands at 39%, while the average for all countries included in the survey is at 57%.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BA88820:02

      It is very good that Serbia is not in European statistics yet...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous23:18

      Serbia was in fact included in the poll, and it stands around 8th place, behind Slovenia and Croatia. This is, however, corruption perception survey, so it's about apperances, not the facts.

      This was not a Eurostat survey, it was done by E&Y.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous23:35

    Zrakoplovna kompanija Lufthansa dodijelila je Zračnoj luci Zagreb ZLATNU medalju za kvalitetu usluga prihvata i otpreme zrakoplova i putnika za 2012. godinu, prema rezultatima internog istraživanja kvalitete usluga u zračnim lukama u okruženju.

    U konkurenciji su bile zračne luke: Prag, Varšava, Bukurešt, Beograd, Sofija i Budimpešta.

    "Uz sve kolegice i kolege iz zračne luke, posebno ističemo Sektor prometa putnika koji je stručnošću, profesionalnošću i velikim zalaganjem, posebno zaslužan za ovaj izvanredan rezultat", poručuju iz Zračne luke Zagreb.

    I hope that would be topic in exYU tomorrow, because for sure it is not little thing that one of biggest and most influence companies in the world with more than 100.000 workers give you such a high recognition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous01:32

      The less you have passengers, the better you can serve them...that's the magic formula of Zagreb.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous07:06

    Zrakoplovna kompanija Lufthansa dodijelila je Zračnoj luci Zagreb ZLATNU medalju za kvalitetu usluga prihvata i otpreme zrakoplova i putnika za 2012. godinu, prema rezultatima internog istraživanja kvalitete usluga u zračnim lukama u okruženju.

    U konkurenciji su bile zračne luke: Prag, Varšava, Bukurešt, Beograd, Sofija i Budimpešta.

    "Uz sve kolegice i kolege iz zračne luke, posebno ističemo Sektor prometa putnika koji je stručnošću, profesionalnošću i velikim zalaganjem, posebno zaslužan za ovaj izvanredan rezultat", poručuju iz Zračne luke Zagreb

    ReplyDelete

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