Iberia and unions resume negotiations tomorrow on the labor future of the 4,000 ground employees ('handling') who fear being subrogated by other companies, which, in principle, must maintain their working conditions until the end of 2025.
However, the trade union organizations request that the airline retain its workers by providing ground assistance to its own aircraft, an option valid for Aena and carried out by other companies.
"Changing from one company to another through subrogation does not imply a change in the collective agreement, since workers retain the one that applied in the company of origin", explains the president of the National Association of Labor Lawyers (Asnala), Ana Gómez, to EFE.
This is determined by article 44 of the Workers' Statute, which will always prevail over the specific agreements of sectors and companies, which cannot worsen the working conditions established in the aforementioned regulations.
The assignee company -the one that absorbs the employees- must guarantee compliance with the agreement of the assignor company -where they come from- in the workers affected by the transfer, until said agreement or that of the entity that incorporates the staff expires.
In this way, the subrogated Iberia workers would be protected by the airline's agreement until December 31, 2025 -the date on which it expires-, which coincides with the end of the validity of the sectorial agreement, under which the companies that would subrogate the 'handling' staff operate.
The president of Asnala adds that the subrogated workers would only be detached from their previous agreement ahead of time if a new one came into force in the assignee company -an unlikely situation as the sectorial agreement is in force until the end of 2025- or in the event that collective bargaining was initiated regarding this matter.
"Collective negotiations are usually complicated due to the difficulty of defining the elements legitimized to participate, especially on the part of the workers, since they can be the labor representatives of the assignee or those of the assignor, who usually have different interests", Gómez points out.
What is subrogation?
Subrogation consists of replacing one owner with another to continue the same activity, a common process in sales and transfers of businesses and in contract changes, according to the legal expert in labor law, Robert Gutiérrez.
The latter would be the case of ground assistance, subject to a tender organized by the airport manager Aena, in which Iberia lost the performance of this service in eight major airports, in favor of other operators who obtained a license to carry out this activity in substitution of Iberia.
The transfer of powers includes that of the employees to the new company, who "cannot refuse" the subrogation", although they have the right to strike "as a legitimate measure to demand" their requests, according to the experts consulted.
The legislation underlines that in the event that the subrogated workers have worse conditions, the assignee company usually applies its own agreement as it is better.
Precisely, the sectorial agreement of 'handling' indicates that the subrogation should not worsen the economic conditions of the workers, without prejudice to the fact that, if those of the assignee were more favorable than those of the assignor, the best ones would be applied to them.
There is greater conflict when moving from an entity with a more favorable agreement to another with a more limited one, since, despite maintaining the previous conditions for a time, these would change later due to the expiration of the collective labor agreements themselves.
The USO union lists to EFE that the Iberia agreement has better salary and seniority levels and greater facilities to access airline tickets.
Return to the dialogue table
The objective of the unions -CCOO, UGT and USO- is that the 4,000 workers affected by a possible subrogation remain under the umbrella of Iberia.
This is the 'handling' staff of Barcelona, Mallorca, Malaga, Alicante, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Ibiza and Bilbao, who could move to Aviapartner, Groundforce, Menzies and Swissport, the winning operators of a license to offer the service in the aforementioned airports.
The trade union organizations request that the airline retain its workers by providing ground assistance to its own aircraft, an option valid for Aena and carried out by other companies such as Ryanair or easyJet.
Despite initially considering it a "not very profitable" option, Iberia has proposed the creation of a company fully owned by the IAG group -to which it belongs together with Vueling, British Airways, Level and Air Nostrum- to carry out 'autohandling' to the holding's ships and welcome the 8,000 ground employees of the company.
Iberia's plan includes a program of early retirements and voluntary redundancies from the age of 56 for 1,727 people, who would be replaced by new hires.
Despite offering 'autohandling' and avoiding subrogation, the unions do not approve that this new company absorbs the entire staff of the sector and advocate that it only welcomes the 4,000 employees from the airports that Iberia lost.
In addition, USO insists that "the workers hired by this new company would be hired under the sector agreement" and not that of Iberia, to which the employees who were already part of Iberia would adhere.
This will be one of the main points to be discussed at the meeting on Monday, January 22, after two weeks of negotiations, following the strike called by the sector between the 5th and 8th of the first month of the year, which caused cancellations and flight delays, as well as problems with suitcases.
UGT threatened to call an indefinite strike in all areas of Iberia if adequate solutions were not offered for the 'handling' business.
The airline has more than 18,000 employees between passenger and cargo transport, aircraft maintenance and airport personnel.
