“We are immensely pleased to officially announce that the CAB I process has finally reached a definitive conclusion. It is a case of ‘justice delayed, but not denied,'” announced the National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel (SNPVAC) in a statement to its members, accessed today.
The union stated on September 29 that the Constitutional Court had rejected TAP’s appeal regarding refunds to crew members, while the airline still had ten days to file a complaint.
TAP did not contest the Constitutional decision a second time, resulting in the ruling becoming final and unappealable.
The court’s decision confirms the invalidity of a provision in the previous collective bargaining agreement, which discriminated against workers on fixed-term contracts. According to the union, this could lead to compensation payments ranging from 200 to 300 million euros.
SNPVAC mentioned in today’s statement that it will now approach first-instance courts “with the aim of compelling the company to rectify the inevitable,” and that initial cases concerning hiring from 2006 should be filed in courts in the coming weeks, followed by the subsequent years.
This week, the first case filed in 2015, which initially had an unfavorable outcome for crew members, was submitted.
“This concerns 37 crew members who have long awaited this outcome to overturn the previous decision,” emphasized the union, led by Ricardo Penarroias.
Despite this result, SNPVAC pointed out that “there is still much work ahead that could be significantly reduced if the company and the Government decide to finally accept responsibility in this process and choose to correct the situation of the thousands of affected crew members, without resorting to the courts to assert their rights, which have already been upheld by the Supreme Court of Justice and the Constitutional Court.”
The process revolves around a provision in the previous Company Agreement for crew members, valid from 2006 to 2023, which established salary differences between fixed-term and permanent contract workers.
In June, the Supreme Administrative Court declared this provision invalid, determining that fixed-term crew members should fall under the “CAB I” category and receive corresponding salaries.
When questioned about the legal proceedings, TAP stated that it “does not comment on legal matters.”
Additionally, as some of these crew members should have been part of the company’s permanent workforce, certain dismissals during the pandemic were deemed irregular.
Following the pandemic and restructuring plan, from March 2020 to March 2021, 1,514 individuals left the airline.
By the start of this year, 925 employees from various professional categories had been rehired, with compensations totaling 1.74 million euros paid out.
