You will have to be patient if you plan to pass through Geneva airport this holiday season. Some of the staff of the ground handling company Dnata are in fact starting a strike this Sunday, according to their union, which denounces “pressure” exerted by the management of the Emirati company.
Employees of Dnata, which manages around a quarter of the traffic at Geneva airport, will go on strike this Sunday from 4 a.m., the SSP union said on the X network. Dnata takes care of various ground operations – ticketing, baggage handling, etc. – on behalf of several airlines, including British Airways, Air France and KLM.
The duration of the movement not yet defined
The union, which has been threatening a strike since the beginning of the week, declared that its duration would be evaluated “hour by hour”, according to the Swiss news site 20 minutes.
The dispute concerns the working and salary conditions of Dnata staff, who demand a 5% increase in salaries, while management proposes to increase them by 3%. Employees are also demanding a hardship bonus to be paid to people whose work is particularly difficult, carried out at night or on Sundays. A demand swept aside by management, declared the union representative, Jamshid Pouranpi, to 20 minutes.
Some 60,000 passengers affected
The management of Dnata, for its part, abandoned a controversial project aimed at reducing the retirement funds of its staff. Alexandre Koenig, a member of the management of the Emirati company, said the company remained “committed to reaching an agreement”, but that it considered any work stoppage “disproportionate” and “illegal”. The SSP, for its part, claimed that the company had threatened to fire employees who went on strike.
This Sunday, Geneva airport is due to welcome some 60,000 passengers, but the strike movement is likely to slow down air traffic in the middle of the Christmas holiday period.