Holidays planned for the May half-term week could be disrupted by striking cabin crew at Thomas Cook Airlines.
More than 1,000 crew members at the carrier started voting yesterday in a ballot over concerns about allegedly dangerous changes to rest breaks.
According to Unite, the union, crews are being “pushed to the limit in a bid to maximise profits which is, in turn, putting passenger safety at risk”.
Cabin crews are said to have expressed concerns over the impact of tiredness after Thomas Cook started allowing them only a 20-minute break during 12 hours at work. Unite said that crew members typically worked shifts of ten to fifteen hours and up to 60 hours a week, with duties including safety and security checks, boarding and cabin duties. On short-haul flights, this process may be repeated after a turnaround of less than an hour.
Pressure on crew has been increased, Unite said, by the introduction of Airshoppen, a service allowing passengers to buy duty-free goods online in advance and have it delivered to their seats. Cabin crew sort and bag orders before take-off and collect payment during flights.
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The ballot, which closes on May 25, affects crew on flights from ten airports in the UK to destinations including Spain, the Canaries and Greece.
Oliver Richardson, Unite national officer, said: “Fatigue is a major contributory factor to accidents and slower response times when there is an incident.” He said that the airline seemed “intent on working [crews] to the bone to extract as much money as possible out of passengers at the expense of safety”, adding: “The airline’s repeated refusal to agree to talks and reach a sensible negotiated solution is only inflaming matters.”
A spokesman for Thomas Cook said that the company had offered to meet union officials and that “the message we hear directly from our crew is that they’re looking forward to a great summer of flying customers on holiday. Nothing matters more to us than safety. It’s regrettable the union has chosen this path because the crew rest procedure, which includes monitoring all crew rest on all flights, was introduced with the agreement of the union. It also meets the regulations of industry experts the Civil Aviation Authority and does not compromise on safety.”