***Update 16th April 2019*** After careful consideration and examining employment contracts Unite the Union has advised Crewlink that changing the pay date to the 28th of each month from the 10th is in fact a change in the terms and conditions of Crewlink employment contracts.
The date is set in every single contract and it is not mentioned that the Company can change it without the signee’s agreement. The contracts also state that “Any amendments and additions to the terms of this contract shall be confirmed in writing by the Company and unless so confirmed and agreed shall not be binding on the parties”. As Unite the Union is recognised by Crewlink, changes to terms and conditions of contracts are to be negotiated with us and shall not be implemented prior to agreement.
Unite the Union has contacted Crewlink advising them of the above and requesting a meeting with the UCJNC.
More updates will follow.
Original post, 11th April 2019: On Tuesday a memo has been issued to all Crewlink employees by Sylwia Woloch (HR Manager) about the change of pay date for all Crewlink cabin crew. The memo stated that union negotiations and requests by employees motivated this change. As a foreword we would like to state that neither FRUnite nor any other European trade union made any such request. To get some further information about it, Unite has called for an emergency meeting with Crewlink.
During this meeting Mike Parker (Unite Project Worker) pointed out that in accordance with our Recognition Agreement, Unite must be informed of any such changes prior to implementation. It has been explained by Ms. Woloch that this decision was made at directors’ level and Crewlink HR was only advised on Monday – with a request of an immediate implementation. She agreed that issuing the memo without consulting recognised trade unions was wrong and similar issues therefore will not arise in the future.
The reason the date change was implemented was purely logistical as it has been proven difficult for Crewlink to appropriately process payments to all employees throughout the network in a pay date window of 4 days (as different dates were set in separate Collective Labour Agreements).
We have been ensured that any money paid in advance that is claimed back by the company will not incur any costs to the employees.
We have contacted Unite’s Legal Officer to advise us on the legality of this change. We shall be advising you immediately once we had an appropriate advice as per U.K. legislation.
This article will be kept updated.