Legal action that 4 women won against TAP could make the company pay tens of millions to other crew members who, like them, were illegally fired.
It was not even necessary for any union to intervene. 4 flight attendants (another, who was initially involved in the case, reached an agreement with the company), won a lawsuit they filed against the Portuguese airline.
At issue is the dismissal not only of these hostesses, hired on a fixed-term basis in 2018, more than about 1200 TAP crew memberswho sent them away between March 2020 and March 2021 alleging the emergence of the pandemic as a reason. However, the company acquired new planes at that time, according to .
Two of the dismissed hostesses even reached accept unpaid leaveone of them to help a child and the other because she was pregnant.
The Lisbon Court of Appeal concluded in 2022 that their temporary contracts should after all be viewed as open-ended contractsas they corresponded to permanent personnel needs.
According to the most recent court decision, the salaries of crew hired on a fixed-term basis were lower than those of those who belonged to the staff, which constitutes a illegality for disrespecting the principle of equal treatment between workers.
Now, TAP may have to pay not only these 4 women, but a universe that, according to the president of the National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel, Ricardo Penarróias, can reach 2000 people.
According to the union leader, the airline may have to pay between 200 and 300 million euros.
But no one can pinpoint a value yet. According to a source from Público who is familiar with the process, some cases are very old, almost 20 years old, so they will have expired, and the company will only have to pay the modest (depending on the perspective) value of 60 million euros. According to the same source, each worker should receive between 25 and 30 thousand euros.
However, the union leader denies that old cases can be time-barred. TAP has not yet announced whether it will appeal the decision.
