El Al pilots' resignation delayed
Labor court delayed El Al pilots' resignation and orders both parties to continue negotiating; Judge criticizes the airline: 'the customers are the only parties hurt by this childish behavior.’
El Al pilots were ordered to return to the negotiating table with the Israeli airline amid an ongoing labor dispute after the regional labor court denied their request for "urgent temporary reliefs" on Wednesday.
The airline's request followed the pilots' submission of resignation letters, which according to the company, would have grounded all flights.
The company continued to claim that the resignation announcements were made in a collective manner given the dispute between the pilots and the airline.
An hour into the deliberations, Judge Ofira Dagan-Tuchmacher put a stop to proceedings and ordered both parties to reach an agreement amongst themselves outside of the courtroom. "I have a feeling of déjà-vu," she said.
Representatives of both sides stepped out of court accompanied by the chairman of the transport workers union Avi Edri. Upon their return, the judge decided that the resignation of the eight supervisory pilots will be delayed and the sides will continue negotiating intensively until Shabbat begins.
The judge also criticized El Al by stating that "the customers are the only ones affected by this childish behavior. I still don't understand who buys tickets from this company."
The representative of the Board, attorney Efrat Biran said that "the emerging proposal delineates that the negotiations continue until Saturday and in the meantime, the captains who also hold managerial positions will continue their position."
Biran noted that El Al CEO David Maimon even agreed to cancel his own flight abroad scheduled for the weekend for the sake of these negotiations.
The sides agreed that if the negotiations fail to progress, they would reschedule the deliberations and reach a decision then.
Over the past week, the pilots and El Al have been negotiating the terms of employment for pilots over the age of 65. As per protocol, these pilots are forbidden from flying passengers, unless they are supposed to keep working until they retire at the age of 67.
Prior to the cessation of deliberations, the judge said that "any judicial decision or a lack of certainty incurs great damage on both sides. Maybe the company should be dismantled and started over. Financially perhaps that would be the right thing to do, or perhaps not, but both sides should realize that it is not the ideal solution."
Captain Ronnie Zohar, manager of fleet 737, who threatened to quit his senior position, said during the discussion: "I ask to be released from managing flights since my entire work plan has collapsed. I can't take responsibility for my fleet. It has nothing to do with the negotiations and I'm not involved in them. I will only be 65 in six years."
Captain Guy Nevot, manager of fleet 767, said in the discussion that for a year, he has been "alerting the company on safety issues and the pilots' professional side. I can't maintain my managerial duties. Three months ago, I decided I couldn't take the responsibility any longer, which is why I asked to resign in accordance with company protocol."
The pilots' representative, Efrat Deutsch announced that both parties have already agreed that veteran pilots will become flight instructors and will earn a basic monthly salary of NIS 45,000.
The Board representative stated that the main point of contention is the calculation of the pilots' activity hours. The pilots are willing to commit to nine days a month, whereas the management requires the calculation to be done annually, since there are six months with decreased instruction activity.
The Histadrut representative Edri told the judge: "a company isn't run in the courtrooms. There is an entire population here whose funds were severely damaged. People took a drastic pay cut—NIS 17,000 less. The company should give its employees what they already agreed to."
On Tuesday, El Al announced that the resignation of these pilots could entail inestimable damages for the company. "Therefore, the airline appealed to the court, asking them to issue an order stating that the supervisors' resignation would entail an unlawful strike."
Technically flights could take off without supervisory pilots but not without a captain, and the company would have to ground those flights. According to assessments, the captains are being pressured into resigning.
El Al further claimed that "as part of their agreement with the pilots, they undertook to maintain silence on the matter. Despite this commitment, additional disruptions continued to occur, which led to a temporary injunction issued by the court on February 6, compelling the pilot representatives to exercise their authority in order to enforce complete silence and orderly work. The company has also been using all of its available tools to make sure flights run their scheduled course."
In response to El Al's claims, the head of the Histadrut Avi Nissenkorn said that the pilots' union hasn't blown up negotiations, nor have they recanted from the agreements reached over the last few days.
According to Nissenkorn, the unions' representatives haven't disparaged or abandoned the meeting that took place on Monday: "El Al Airlines is dear and important to us all. I ask the sides to return to the negotiating table and bring the dispute to an end."
The union responded by stating that "the El Al fleet managers and captains, board members who do not belong to the pilots' union, have all expressed lack of confidence in the CEO David Maimon and in his methods of management… A CEO who manages a company through court orders and injunctions is a failed CEO who does not know how to direct."
