Many employees on short-time work have started looking for part-time jobs.
The corona pandemic and the associated losses in unprecedented amounts are forcing the AUA to take drastic austerity measures. Nevertheless, the AUA currently burns “one to two million euros a day”, confirmed AUA boss Alexis von Hoensbroech in the magazine “News” – at least 40 million euros per month.
At Lufthansa it is even 350 million euros a month. According to the newspaper report, the crisis is causing more and more AUA people to look for second jobs in order to make ends meet.
Hope for 2021
Nobody knows how long the crisis will last and when the pre-crisis level will be reached again. “We will definitely get through the winter with our liquid funds,” affirmed von Hoensbroech, who also assumes that “50, 60 or 70 percent of the business will come back in the summer.” The Austrian Airlines management assumed such a scenario in its business plan.
In the three quarters up to the end of September, AUA posted a loss of 341 million euros. “This is of course a loss that has never been seen at this level. It was not caused by mismanagement, but because a kind of natural disaster of unknown severity and duration struck us through no fault of our own.” The AUA boss speaks of a “very tough test”. There is still a certain dregs of bookings, and the turnstile function is also being maintained.
Austerity
The clock is ticking louder and louder both at Lufthansa, which has received 9 billion euros in state aid, and at its Austrian subsidiary AUA, which is also supported by the Austrian state with crisis aid. This is also felt by the currently 6,600 AUA employees, who will have to contribute around 300 million euros to the crisis by 2024.
1,100 employees are to be cut by 2022. In the meantime, however, everyone is on short-time work until at least March 2021. The current legal basis for this applies until then, but the AUA intends to use it at least until the first quarter of 2022. “In practice, it should be possible to use short-time work until business comes back,” said the AUA boss.
Part-time jobs
Even if you are not allowed to terminate the short-time working, the situation for those affected – who perform between 10 and 80 percent of their original work – is unfortunate. Many AUA employees, especially younger and poorly paid employees, have to look for a second job on short-time, writes “News”. Otherwise your income will no longer suffice. With around 2,500 flight attendants, the variable salary components such as commissions from on-board sales, which can otherwise make up 20 percent of income, are also omitted.
“A reduction of 10 or 20 percent plus the elimination of the variable salary components that are not included in the short-time work regulation – that is not enough for many employees,” said Rainer Stratberger, the board's works council chairman. Many would also have in the gastro or. Catering branch hired – which is now also closed -, some with the ÖBB Nightjets and others even with auxiliary or care services.
Others would drop out at all because they lacked the prospects, it says in the report with reference to an unnamed long-time AUA employee. The company does not name how many AUA people have looked for part-time jobs; according to the works council, this is not about individual cases. This runs through all areas of the company.
