TAP crew members advance with 44 lawsuits against the airline over salary disputes

Portugal’s National Union for Civil Aviation Flight Personnel (SNPAVC) has handed 44 lawsuits on behalf of cabin crew to a court to claw back payments of up to €300 million in owed salaries.

These are the first lawsuits to enter the justice system after the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the cabin crew in a uniform agreement according to SNPVAC in a note sent to members.

TAP also appealed to the Constitutional Court, but this court upheld the decision from the Supreme Court and the case will be heard in October.

“As we always said, once the agreement was defined we would begin a number of lawsuits on behalf of colleagues.

“Despite the company’s position of putting off the payment of these labour credits to cabin crew for as a long as possible, in the coming weeks more lawsuits will enter the courts.”

At issue in these proceedings is a rule from the previous Crew Company Agreement, which was in force between 2006 and 2023, which distinguished in terms of remuneration between crew members with fixed-term and open-ended contracts.

The Supreme Administrative Court ruled in June that this rule was null and void and that the fixed-term crew members should have been included in the “CAB I” category, earning that respective salary.

The decision means that TAP will have to pay retroactively the amount that the crew members should have received with the immediate inclusion in that category.

The total number of cabin crew claiming compensation stands at around 2,000 with payouts expected to be worth €300 million if successful according to the SMPVAC.