Wizz Air
redundancies ‘dangerously influenced’ flight safety culture claims
whistleblower
Wizz Air came back
down to earth with a bump this morning as the firm braced itself for a net
loss of up to €590m for the full financial year.
Covid-19-related
redundancies at Wizz Air “dangerously influenced” flight safety culture, a
whistleblower has claimed, after the way in which staff were selected for
redundancy left them worried to call in sick.
Last April
London-listed Wizz Air laid off around 1,000 staff – around 20 per cent of
its workforce – after a travel shutdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic put
financial pressure on the group.
Pilots based in
Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and
Romania were made redundant last April, with the majority of redundancies
from Hungary.
Despite the
redundancies, the budget carrier is bracing itself for a net loss of up to
€590m for the full financial year. However, Wizz said it still had €1.6bn
in cash, having taken a number of steps to shore up its finances over the
last quarter.
A Wizz Air pilot
told City A.M. that the basis for layoffs “dangerously influenced” flight
safety culture across the Wizz Air Group.
“People have been
and are being pressured to work while sick, fatigued or extended duty
periods in fear of sacking,” they said. “It is unacceptable and breaches
regulations designed to ensure flight safety.”
Earlier this month
an audio clip from the previous April came to light, allegedly featuring
Wizz Air’s former head of flight operations Darwin Triggs, telling staff to
draw up target lists of which staff should be made redundant.
Among Triggs’
suggestions for redundancy included those who called in sick, or those who
refused to work on their days off.
In the audio
recording a man who is allegedly Triggs can be heard saying: “We start off
with the bad apples, so anyone who has caused you grief on a routine
basis.”
He later suggests
“anyone who is not Wizz culture” should be considered, along with those
“constantly reporting sick, every time they’re sick” and those who decline
to work on their days off.
Following an
internal investigation at the airline, Triggs earlier this month stepped
down from his role.
Letter to Wizz
In August 2020
following the sackings, Mircea Constantin, a former Wizz Air employee and
the president of Sindicatul Aerolimit Professional (SAP) and the Flight
Personnel Union Romania (FPU), unions that represent flight staff, wrote to
Diederik Pen, group chief operating officer at Wizz, to express concern
about safety at the airline.
“Our colleagues
around the network are always sharing with us valuable information about
the safety of the flight operations in Wizz Air that will most definitely
be available to support the criticism served so far,” Constantin wrote in
the letter, seen by City A.M.
“Your crew is
truly scared of discrimination and persecution around sick leave days,
refusals to extend maximum FDP (flight duty period) under captain’s
discretion, refusals to work from off days, and fatigue reports or e-mails
in response to exhausting rosters, since the company will eventually find a
way to retaliate by dismissing them.”
Leaked messages
from a Q&A session that took place on virtual interaction app Slido
painted a similar picture: “Whether you want to see the truth of not, your
staff are close to breaking point and becoming a flight safety risk. They
deserve respect, not exploitation,” said one respondent.
Another added:
“New procedure for CC (cabin crew) in CLJ (Cluj-Napoca airport) to not
report to OCC (operation control centre) when they’re sick. If they do a
manager will decide whether it’s justified instead of a physician. Any
comment?”
The FTSE-listed
company rejected any concerns around an alleged lack of safety at the
airline.
A spokesperson
said: “Wizz Air has done and continues to do everything possible to secure
the integrity of the business since the breakout of Covid-19.
“The past year has
been challenging for the airline, in particular when the pandemic hit
Europe in March 2020, which created the need for a reduction in staff.
Whilst it is true that some language was used at that time – under
unprecedented circumstances – which was regrettable, Wizz Air has taken
swift and comprehensive action to ensure that its flight operations
structure is best suited to and optimised for supporting and developing its
flight crews.
“This includes new
leadership of flight operations and a new, regional structure. Wizz Air
categorically rejects any claims about lack of safety at the airline.
Safety and security have always been paramount priorities for Wizz Air,
which is exemplified by our exceptional safety track record and industry
accreditations.”
Wizz Air pointed
out it had made no further redundancies since April 2020, despite second
and third waves of Covid-19.
“We continue to
work tirelessly to upgrade pandemic impacted salaries, to implement our
Pilot Peer Support Program, to invest in our pilot recency training and
coaching program with focus on pilot competencies and to create new
opportunities where they arise,” they continued.
“Despite the
significant operational challenges associated with the pandemic, the 81 per
cent satisfaction rate of the employee satisfaction survey as well as the
77 per cent retention rate among our crew members all point into the same
direction: Wizz Air is a great place to work, where employees are listened
to and where employees remain the company’s biggest asset.
“And we are in the
process of hiring again in order to meet the demand expected post-Covid.”
A spokesperson for
the UK pilot union Balpa said: “We have identified ‘commercial pressure’ as
the absolutely central issue in our recently-published ‘Most Wanted Flight
Safety Improvements’. Any time that pilots are put under pressure to cut
corners, not report sick, not declare when they are too fatigued to fly,
this is commercial pressure being brought to bear on safety.
“The situation
report at Wizz Air [regarding the audio recording from April 2020] is
extremely concerning. It is absolutely right that the manager in question
has gone from his position, but serious questions remain about the
airline’s commitment to a just safety culture given what has happened
there. Other UK airlines work with Balpa to ensure the highest standards of
safety and we would encourage Wizz to do the same.”
The European Union
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) declined to comment.
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