Norwegian accused of social dumping

Thai cabin crew on Norwegian’s new route to Bangkok is paid around 100.000 Thai baht per month. Norwegian labor union leader calls it social dumping.

Norway’s fast expanding airline Norwegian, which just opened new routes to Bangkok and New York is accused for committing social dumping, online paper NA24 reported.

The cabin crew on the dreamliner route Oslo-Bangkok-Oslo is paid a salary of approximately 100.000 baht per month, which is about three times more than an average high salary in Thailand.

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But the fact that the cabin crew is not paid a Norwegian salary and do not have the same work conditions as if labored in Norway, led the Norwegian government and the leader of the labor union Parat to accuse the airline for social dumping.

Leader of the union Hans-Erik Skjæggerud said that he is not asking for Norwegian salary and work conditions for all employees in Norwegian, but only for those who through their work are connected to Norway.

“What we mean is, that employees flying on Norwegian routes who’s production is in Norway, should have Norwegian conditions. In other words, employees who are flying Oslo-New York-Oslo and Oslo-Bangkok-Oslo are supposed to have Norwegian conditions. Those who work for Norwegian and fly Spain-England-Spain are of course supposed to have Spanish conditions. That is also what we claim in the current Ryan-air case we are running,” Skjæggerud said.

The reaction to the Thai cabin crew’s work conditions comes after online paper NA24’s article that focused on exactly that.

Skjæggerud feels that the NA24 story makes it sound like he and the Norwegian government are interested in exporting the Norwegian work conditions. But that is wrong, he explained.

“We just do not wish Kjos (Norwegian’s CEO Bjørn Kjos) or O’Leary (Ryanair CEO) to import foreign work conditions to Norwegian production,” Skjæggerud said.

Norwegian comments

Head of communications at Norwegian, Mr. Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen has commented on the claims by Parat.

“The Thai staff have a contract with a recruitment agency in Bangkok. We have no reason to doubt the information they gave Nettavisen NA24 regarding the wages. The staff know themselves how much they earn and the interviewee Jui is probably more honest that the unionbosses of Parat who are known to spread misinformation,” says Norwegian’s Communications Manager Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen to NA24.

“Parat tries to claim that when an aircraft is is inside Norway then it can be defined as “Norwegian production” which they seem to own. That is the essence of their argument. But aircraft operated by our competitors like Thai, Qatar and United flying between Norway and Asia and USA is not defined as Norwegian merely because they land in Oslo,” Sandaker-Nielsen says.

 

Follow the link to read more about NA24’s story about Norwegian (written in Norwegian)

http://www.na24.no/article3671323.ece

2 Comments on “Norwegian accused of social dumping”

  1. Yet again Scandinavian unions are showcasing WHY we will lose to Asia in the end… They just don’t get the fact that salaries are too damn high in Scandinavia and we’ve lost our edge on the competitiveness to Asia.
    These Thais employed by Norwegian is making higher salaries than even some foreigners working locally in Thailand AND paying less tax.
    The unions have ruined Scandinavia, dumb narrow-minded morons.

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