About 14% of pilots flying for European airlines are self-employed or work for temporary work agencies (TWA), according to a European Commission funded study by the University of Ghent, which says that proportion is growing.
The first conference held to examine this social phenomenon is being held in Paris on 12-13 February. It will be interesting to see what conclusions are reached about the practice.
It’s perfectly legal, just another of those techniques modern multinational multi-base carriers can use to exploit the fact that laws and taxes stop at national borders, like the cop-cars in the Bonnie and Clyde movie screech to a halt at state boundaries.
The study, carried out between September and November 2014 received responses from a total of 6,633 pilots, estimated to be some 10% of the known European professional pilot population.
Some 5.4% of European pilots are in what Ghent University terms “atypical employment” involving a contract with a TWA, and 72% of those had a fixed-term contract with the agency. “Many report being paid per hour without a minimum number of flights guaranteed.”
Among all the pilots in “atypical employment”, 70% work for low-cost carriers, and the majority of those are at the younger end of the age range. Among those who work for LCCs, 84% are on some form of self-employed or agency contract. The study found that respondents working in business aviation also “tend to be self-employed more often than their colleagues working for network or regional airlines”.
The university remarks that since a large proportion of self-employed pilots work only for one company, that “could be considered as an indicator of bogus self employment.” In other words, their contract requires them to work exclusively for a single carrier, so they have none of the flexibility normally implied by true self-employment.
The study observes: “The majority of flight crew directly employed in a network airline stem from another era: they have 20-25 years of experience and have witnessed the deregulation of the aviation market. In other words: they were recruited in a different time: a time where an open-ended labour agreement concluded directly with the airline was the typical employment relationship.”
Ghent finds many aircrew have jobs that don’t comply with the home base principle. Operators are supposed to assign each crew member to one particular airport at which duties start and end. This, says the study, determines which law applies to the contracts, where crews pay social security, but also which rules for minimum rest and working time apply to them.
Some 85% of pilots pay their social security tax in the country of their home base, and 80% also pay their income tax there. The study observes, however, that “the concept is fragile”, because 9% of pilots say they do not fly regularly out of their designated home base.
Of course Ryanair has decided to become Mr Nice Guy to its passengers now, but most of its pilots are still self-employed and paid through agencies. The theory is that if everything goes well, and you are well-paid, it really doesn’t matter.
Does it?
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