The company is undergoing a network review of absenteeism. As a result, we are aware of the company summoning crew to Dublin over their absences.

While this was something that happened before covid, and seemed to have stopped during Covid, we are very unhappy to see this resume.

There are a few facts you should know :

An « arret de travail » from your doctor is the only justification you need for your sick days. As long as you send the arret to the employer within 48h, you are doing nothing wrong. Also don’t forget to call crewcontrol as far on advance as possible.

You cannot be sanctioned for being sick. You cannot be sanctioned, dismissed, or be discriminated against for being sick. No matter the amount of sick days, as long as they are certified, and you have respected the timeline, you cannot undergo a disciplinary process. Any sanction over this is a DISCRIMINATION ON HEALTH GROUNDS

You do not have to give any details about your health situation to your employer in those meetings as you are protected by medical secrecy. The employer has no right to enquire about why you were sick, or why you have so many absences.

REGARDING MEETINGS WITH THE EBM

Nothing denies the employer the right to summon the employee to speak to him. However, for them to choose to do summon crew to Dublin, when videocalls are

available and have been in use for at least 2 years is merely a way to intimidate crew and pressurise them.

We would suggest that at these meetings you simply state :

"I have fully satisfied all the formalities required for my sick days. The employer has been notified, the arret de travail sent in a timely fashion. Any further details fall under medical secrecy.

This can be repeated like a robot, as many times as necessary…"

Finally having seen the summons letter over absences, we notice they do not mention you right to have someone attend with you. You can ask for a witness, and you can ask for an employee representative to be dialled in.

We are not happy over the resumption of meetings in Dublin over certified absences, and we have notified the labour inspection. During our negotiations we have tried to have the generic letters over absenteeism ended, or at least the wording changed as we feel they are too brutal and can only pressurise crew to come to work sick.

The renewed physical meetings in the headquarters of the group over this matter seem to show the value the company has given to our input.

Thank you, Your SNPNC-FO team