Europe’s air safety at risk amid cost-cutting and staff pressures, study warns | Airline industry
The pilots and the cabin team in the European Airlines, according to a major study, feel for long hours of work and hiding signs of fatigue at the expense of security.
In the research conducted by Gent University in Belgium, cost reduction and profit chase in Airlines “systemically weakened” and many exhausted employees feel very scared to challenge.
He found concerns between the cabin team, who stated that he was forced to sell 6,900 workers, perfume and alcohol and offers a conflict with the roles of safe and good holding passengers.
The report found that Covid pandema accelerated a decrease in working conditions.
Researchers said that one generation of senior pilot has left the sector and replaced with younger, cheaper and more flexible workers who are more likely to accept precarious contracts that weaken standards protection capabilities.
When asked if they were confident in pushing back against decisions that feel potentially insecure, more than half of the respondents said that they did not feel that they could not “change the instructions” from the administration based on security objections. The results have been impaired by Gent University, which found that 82% of the pilots thought they could change the instructions, since 2014.
Approximately 30% of pilots are sometimes reluctant to make security decisions without fear of possible negative consequences for their professional careers.
The authors of the study Yves Jorens and Lien Valcke face the risk of slipping towards the sales responsibilities of the flight, diluting the security -centered nature of the cabin crew, role conflict, psychosocial coercion and legal uncertainties, Kul he wrote. “While commercial prints can make such applications attractive for airlines, they come at a cost for workers’ welfare, safety standards and professional integrity.”
The participants of the study mentioned the “Swiss cheese model ,, security layers“ systematically weakened for financial reasons (throwing extra holes), leaving the last obstacles depending on the chance and chance rather than solid protection ”.
After the increasing sovereignty of low -cost carriers and pandemia, a recoil with a recoil in air traffic is under pressure to work longer shifts with less resting opportunity. As a result, 42% of the entire crew, he says that management gives priority to the planning of security.
Fatigue is a permanent problem, the staff usually feel that they cannot rest even when they behave tired or well. Almost one of the three pilots and almost half of the cabin crew were sometimes hesitant to declare that they were not suitable for flying.
The crew was asked to share anonymously. Someone said: “I just feel like a criminal because I’m sick.” Another reported that the European base manager was shouting: “You are here to sell hair.”
Others complained about not feeling valuable. One of the airline “One to me [number] And nothing else. There is no respect for mental prosperity or physical prosperity. Human is proud of the profit on welfare. It has a weak toxic workplace culture and horror culture. This fear stems from the amount of people they fire for stupid reasons. “
Questions were asked about their health and asked that they felt that the airlines cared about their personal goals and prosperity, while 68% of the whole crew fell below the positive threshold for mental health, and 78% saw themselves as “humanity”.
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The research has been a concern of atypical employment, such as short -term or self -employed contracts or airline directly, such as agency studies, because these groups reported worse conditions and lower welfare levels.
In the young age groups and Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and other Eastern European countries were more likely to have atypical positions compared to the old crew. While 41% between the age of 21 were in atypical employment, 52% of Eastern Europeans had atypical agreements.
The authors said that the work intensity increased ten years ago due to digitalization, automation and higher passenger volumes, and that the crew has left less time to effectively perform its duties.
“Something about tendency is that prosperity is not clearly linked to the security results ‘is the increasing use of the administration’. “Atipic work has not been lost and the risks it creates ten years ago are now felt in the whole sector.”
The authors said that without making improvements in rules and contracts, Europe’s aviation industry is at risk of losing the “security edge ..
“Labor conditions are no longer a social issue – they have an impact on security, prosperity and fatigue, all of which are associated with each other. We cannot maintain a safe and flexible European aviation sector without fair and stable employment.”
Ignacio Plaza, Secretary General of the European Cockpit Association for pilot unions warned: “The race under the contracts is now touching every pilot – and when the pilots are under pressure, passengers also feel risk. These abuse requires an emergency investigation.”
The International Air Transport Association was approached for comment.
