TAP reduces cuts in pilots’ salaries by 10%

Portugal’s airline TAP is to reduce the cuts to its pilots’ salaries by around 10%.

The company has decided to update the minimum guaranteed salary of €1,330 to €1,410, backdating it to January, which will “assure the principle of maintaining basic salary level protection”.
In a message sent to staff, to which the news agency Lusa has access, the company emphasised that the “current salary cuts are a commitment made by all during the restructuring plan, and cannot simply be changed because business turnover has increased”.
But adds, “Moreover, one of the main goals defined for these cuts was to be able to adopt a minimum guaranteed salary to which no cut would be applicable”.
“The application of this guaranteed minimum (salary) means that the effective cuts are not 25%, but vary between 12-15%,” states the notice.
As a result of “an open and ongoing dialogue”, it was decided to update the minimum guaranteed salary from €1,330 to €1,410 backdated to January 2022 which “will assure the principle of protecting a level of salary with cuts, which is equivalent to two minimum national salaries”, states the TAP executive commission in a message to all staff.
According to the letter, and more specially regarding its pilots, the executive commission headed by Christine Ourmières-Widener will “unilaterally reduce the cut of 10%”, as well as paying the landing subsidy without cuts and backdated to January 2022, and suspend the application of the clawback mechanism (and not plan extraordinary hours as a result).
The clawback mechanism is foreseen under clause 12.a of the Temporary Emergency Agreement (TEA) which enables a penalty to be applied to TAP if it exceeds 300,000 hours of annual flight hours and also limits TAP’s ability to plan extra hours for its pilots, according to the note which was sent to Lusa.