Wizz Air has been called upon by over a dozen investors to permit staff to form and join trade unions due to ongoing concerns that the company was “actively” discouraging the practice and breaching human rights.
The group of 14 investors, which includes $23.0bn Danish pension fund AkademikerPension and Britain’s Ardevora Asset Management, said the freedom for workers to unionise was guaranteed in a range of global and regional conventions and laws.
However, the investors claim that research has uncovered a culture of blocking employees from doing so at the low-cost airline.
According to Reuters, a letter from the investors pointed to six different examples dating back to 2014, when a Romanian judge fined Wizz after dismissing 19 employees as a result of starting a union.
While the investors acknowledged that Wizz aimed to manage labour relations through an internal body known as the Wizz People Council, they stated they had concerns regarding the council’s effectiveness in communicating staff concerns to upper management – specifically pointing to a recent whistleblower report that cited fears surrounding both pilot fatigue and flight safety.
Chief executive of AkademikerPension, Jens Munch Holst, vowed that if Wizz’s board refuses to act, his fund will ditch its stake in the carrier.
