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TAP’s restructuring plan includes measures such as a 25% cut in payroll, a measure that covers the entire group, in order to reduce fixed costs. This was one of the measures announced by the public company (the State now has 72.5% of the capital) to the unions, within the framework of the round of meetings that took place this Friday.
The information appears in a statement sent this Friday night by the National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel (SNPVAC) to its members. In addition to this reduction, the SNPVAC speaks of a wave of layoffs that only in the case of cabin crew implies the departure of “750 effective crew members”. In addition to this figure, the union highlights, there are about 1,000 cabin crew whose term contracts have not been renewed since March or will not be renewed in the coming months. In total, there will be about 1800 jobs in these functions alone.
“It is with great concern that we left the meeting we held this afternoon with TAP management,” says SNPVAC, who sat at the table with Ramiro Sequeira, interim executive president, Miguel Frasquilho, president of the board of directors, and with the director of human resources, Pedro Ramos. The company also has the support of the consulting firm BCG.
“These figures reflected here represent incalculable damage to our families. We are not talking about numbers, but about people ”, adds the union. “Since the plan is not closed, we still have time to remedy this situation,” says SNPVAC, specifying that it will inform the Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, on December 2, when to meet with the workers’ representatives, only eight days before the deadline for the delivery of the plan in Brussels. The company is also reducing the number of planes in the fleet, after several years of betting on the growth of planes and workers, a strategy interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite requests for clarification from the PUBLIC, the company did not comment. This Friday night, TAP has just announced that it was going to renounce the extraordinary support regime for the progressive recovery in December, support that has allowed it significant savings in terms of expenses with workers. One of the requirements to adhere to this measure is not to make redundancies.
This Friday, TAP also re-entered the political debate, with PSD president Rui Rio saying that the government’s “first mistake” was putting money into the company “blindly.” “Now we are going to see the restructuring plan, if it is feasible and how much money you may need more,” he said, quoted by Lusa.
The Government has allocated 1.2 billion euros to financing TAP this year, through monthly installments, which can, in whole or in part, be subsequently converted into capital. The loan is associated with the payment of interest calculated at the value of the IBOR rate (which Finance says essentially corresponds to the Euribor at 12 months to date), to which an additional 4% is added. And, for the year, at least 500 million euros are already prepared, through a public guarantee, to help the company to finance itself, provided that Brussels agrees. Due to state aid, it is necessary to present a plan that demonstrates that the company is viable on its own, under market conditions.
According to TAP semi-annual data – period in which the group had a loss of 606 million euros, of which 582 million corresponded to TAP, SA –, the airline arrived at the end of June with 8,593 workers, when the workforce produced at the end of February was made up of 9,153 (10,952 in the total group). As for the group, it had 10,952 workers at the end of 2019. On October 15, in a parliamentary hearing, Minister Pedro Nuno Santos said that 1,200 workers had already left the TAP group, and that the number would reach 1,600 by the end of the year. end of the year, including companies like Cateringport here.
In 2019, the year in which the group had a loss of 105.6 million euros, personnel expenses were the second major item of expenses for the TAP group, amounting to 751.9 million euros, 7% above 2018. Jet fuel reached 789.6 million.
