Multiple pressures –Easyjet Switzerland has barely escaped a strike
At the end of 2024, the staff was ready to get out of it. In question: low wages and poor working conditions induced by overly tight flight planning.
Posted: 17.04.2025, 06:23
An Easyjet fleet plane on the Tarmac of Geneva airport
Steeve IUNCKER-GOMEZ
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On the eve of the holidays at the end of 2024, Easyjet Switzerland came close to the first strike in its history. With, at the top of the list of claims, The revaluation of wages. “The staff had voted for a unanimously unanimously rating,” recalls Jamshid Pouranpir, union secretary of the SSP (Public Services Syndicat). “We managed to find an agreement in January 2025 after six months of negotiations. We have notably obtained the increase in wages by 30% over three years, including a 13e from 2025. “
The union does not rest on its laurels. “It remains so much to do,” says Jamshid Pouranpir. Easyjet’s business model is based on the one hand on a very active commercial policy, with low rates and ultra -tourism destinations. And on the other hand, on an extremely high exploitation of devices: an aircraft is considered profitable if it works at full speed. ”
Rotation time and working conditions
As a low cost company, operational efficiency, “including rotation times On the ground, is at the heart of our model, ”says Easyjet Switzerland, by e-mail and without answering our questions precisely. “Our ground, cabin and cockpit teams work closely with our soil assistance partners and airports to maintain and improve the efficiency of our rotations.”
The rotation time is the precious minutes that flow to the ground between an landing and a takeoff. It includes the landing of passengers, cleaning the cabin, fuel supplies, unloading and loading of luggage, boarding new passengers, technical checks and implemented for the next flight.
“Currently, the targeted rotation time is thirty-five minutes and the planning is overloaded, regrets an Easjyet collaborator in Geneva, under the cover of anonymity. It’s untenable! ” The company indicates that it does not communicate any figure on this subject. “Overcomes cause delays which are often impossible to catch up and then continues our witness. We touch the limits of the system: this ultra -skill planning to fit as possible a maximum of flights! It generates enormous pressure for the staff. ”
Another Easyjet collaborator, also under the cover of anonymity, adds: “Thirty-five minutes of rotation time, it works on paper, but not in reality … There are always more destinations and people in airports … If it gets customs, we wait for our passengers and we lose precious minutes. In summer, it’s just not possible. “
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At Easyjet, this time of rotation of Airbus of the A320 family would have been in place for several years already. As a comparison, at Swiss, it oscillates from forty to fifty minutes for European court-coated (depending on the Airbus A220, A320 or A 321). Another low cost, Ryanair (which is not present in Geneva Airport), practices rotation times less than thirty-five minutes. “But they operate in peripheral airports, less frequented, like Paris-Beauvais,” explains our second witness.
Unproductive working conditions
“With frequent delays, our working days lie down and we must also manage the annoyance of passengers,” continues our first witness. Some are aggressive. Especially when you have to confuse the plane in Lyon since after midnight, We can’t land in Geneva. ” The announcement generally goes pretty badly. “When you are locked up in a container in the sky, you quickly become irritable … Now it is not us wrong either to end our day at 4 am! Not to mention that for the most part, we will be back to work the next day, after a little restful night but with the responsibility of 180 other passengers on board. ”
Easyjet Switzerland requires a great availability of its employees and employees, notes Jamshid Pouranpir. “Working time constantly encroaches on privacy. Like devices, staff are also exploited to the maximum. ”
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