Spain's Air Traffic Controllers see salaries capped

 

The official arbitrator between the Spanish Airports Authority AENA, and the USCA Air Traffic Controllers Union, has announced his resolution in the long standing and troubled dispute over wages and conditions.

Manuel Pimentel has ruled that that the air traffic controllers should work fewer hours than they are currently expected to, but capped average earnings at 200,000 € a year. This is lower than the average salary at the moment, but brings the Spanish controllers' earnings in line with their counterparts in other countries.

The controllers hours of work will be reduced from 1711 to 1670 over the course of this year, and will then be reduced again to 1595 from 2013.

Pimentel explained this decision by saying ‘In Spain the controllers work more than the European average, but they are paid much more'.

A new ‘active reserve' list of controllers will be created for employees who have lost their position as a main controller, to be paid 75% of the average salary and be subjected to full medical tests every six months from the age of 57.

These new measure will come into immediate effect once they have been published in the BOE Official State Bulletin.

The President of the USCA, controllers' union, welcomed the changes, saying how they will bring ‘tranquillity and normality for the workers'.