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Due to the requirement that all parties be treated equally, employees of Estonian Air will get redundancy payouts if all creditors agree to this, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications Kristen Michal said.
Minister: Redundancy payouts to Estonian Air employees depend on creditors
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«My position is that Estonian Air should search for as good as possible a compromise for the employees. I also said to the chairman of the supervisory board that in the liquidation proceeding Estonian Air can make a proposal to creditors that employees would get their redundancy payouts,» Michal told BNS on Tuesday.
«Since under law creditors must be treated equally, the Estonian state being a creditor, when the company makes a proposal like this I will definitely ask about it at the Finance Ministry, but my position is that the employees should get their redundancy payouts and then the rest of the claims would be dealt with,» the Reform Party minister said.
«I hope that also the rest of the creditors will take a similarly positive approach to the employees and their redundancy payouts,» the minister added.
Estonian Air stopped operating flights on Saturday, following an announcement of a decision by the European Commission finding that the airline has received illegal state aid and must return 85 million euros to the state.
What will happen to the employees of Estonian Air remains unknown. The airline has pledged to grant all applications to leave without the established notice period. Trade unions have said that employees should be made formally redundant and redundancy payouts made to them using money from the government's contingency reserve.
The chairman of the Estonian Trade Union Confederation (EAKL), Peep Peterson, said the government must treat employees of Estonian Air on an equal footing with passengers and find money in its reserve to make redundancy payouts.
«Under the collective agreement, a longer notice period and a requirement for bigger compensation than set out in the law applies when their employees are made redundant. For instance, an airline captain who has worked at the company for 10 years would be entitled to a payout equaling his ten months' pay in case of redundancy with immediate effect,» Peterson said in a press release.