The airline Norwegian is giving notice of termination to all cabin crew at Arlanda base in Sweden after all flights in Sweden were cancelled due to Covid-19. This is stated in a press release from Norwegian. The company has begun talks with the pilots' association.
Norwegian 800 employees in Sweden. OSM, which has 380 cabin crew for Norwegian in Sweden, has also sent out notices of dismissal to all employees, reports Dagens Næringsliv.
A number of Norwegian's administrative employees at Arlanda base have had their working hours reduced.
”"Rules for layoffs are different in Sweden than in Norway, where the employer is responsible for a large proportion of the employees' salary when laid off. Therefore, the company has had to terminate staff instead of layoffs. Those who have been terminated are guaranteed re-employment when operations resume and they have that right for 12 months. Layoff rules are about to be phased in in Sweden and we expect them to also cover Norwegian's staff," the press release states.
On Monday morning, Norwegian announced that it expects a fuel cost of more than one billion Norwegian kroner in the first quarter. In addition, the company transported 61 percent fewer passengers in March compared to last year.
Over 90 percent of all Norwegian employees globally are laid off according to local regulations in each country.
Norwegian has previously expressed criticism that SAS is being treated differently by the Swedish government credit guarantees. This after the government wanted to change the rules for which companies are eligible for the support.
Initially, it was stated that all companies that have a Swedish flight permit or have their registered office or main business in Sweden would be covered. However, this was changed a few days later – on March 24th to be more precise – to the effect that only airlines in a group with the parent company's registered office in Sweden could take part in the guarantee program, which would exclude Norwegian.
Robert Björkholm, pilot and chief safety officer at Norwegian's Swedish subsidiary Norwegian Air Sweden, tells Economic echo that it is obvious that the Swedish company is in trouble.
”"We just want to be given the same chance to ride out this crisis as our blue-finned brothers," he tells Ekot.
Earlier on Monday, the airline BRA announced that it is applying for restructuring, which means that 600 people will be given notice of termination.
Source: di.se
