“(…) The pilots of TAP SA, with a full sense of responsibility towards taxpayers and passengers, despite being forced to finance a Restructuring Plan wrongly imposed on the company that is responsible for the overwhelming majority of the revenue of the TAP group, resolved in the Assembly of Company, approved by 92% of the approximately 700 pilots who participated, not to go on strike, because they do not want to agree with the already demonstrated intention of using them as a scapegoat for the failures in the company's recovery plan", said the Union of Civil Aviation Pilots (SPAC).

SPAC recalled that the pilots “signed a Temporary Emergency Agreement (ATE), in force since March 2021, to protect jobs when there was no operation, demonstrating their full availability to make the company viable”.

“Still, TAP SA pilots were subject to collective dismissal, despite the 50% pay cut they were subjected to, while the remaining TAP group workers were only subjected to a 25% cut”.

According to the SPAC, TAP “does not comply with the ATE” and “assigns assistance periods to pilots within the limit of the monthly flight hours ceilings”.

Also, according to the union, the airline “disrespects the time off regime provided for in the Company Agreement” and “repeatedly disrespects clauses regulating the distribution of work”.

TAP “intends to unilaterally amend the ATE signed in good faith between the pilots and the company and, recently, it does not even comply with the Law in a Rule of Law, prohibiting pilots from meeting in plenary”, added the SPAC.