Norwegian Group must pay penalties of DKK3.3 million kroner (USD456,000) after breaching a union agreement to re-employ pilots based on seniority at its Danish base. The low-cost carrier was ordered to pay the amount in an arbitration ruling.
Norway's Parat union took on the airline on behalf of 58 pilots who lost their jobs during COVID-19 and the bankruptcy of the Danish and Swedish units of Norwegian Group. Almost all of those pilots now have their jobs back. But Parat's members who were Norwegian pilots have a longstanding master seniority principle agreement attached to the collective agreement that gives them the right to re-employment according to group seniority, irrespective of where they work or worked before the pandemic.
Parat says Norwegian did not abide by this when it reopened its Copenhagen Kastrup base in Denmark in 2021 and began rehiring previously laid-off pilots through local subsidiary Norwegian Crew Resources Denmark ANS.
The arbitration ruling, which cannot be appealed, applied Danish law in what was a cross-border matter. The union says that had the court chosen to follow Norwegian law, the compensation amount would have been significantly higher.
"We are pleased that the arbitration court reduced the claim against us to a fraction of the counterparty's original claim," a Norwegian spokesperson told the Nettavision Økonomi outlet.
Norwegian Air Shuttle AOC operates a fleet of six B737-8s and thirty-nine B737-800s. According to the ch-aviation PRO airlines module, it has ten bases, including Billund in Denmark. Sister carrier Norwegian Air Sweden AOC operates a further eighteen B737-8s and twenty-five B737-800s, and has six bases, including at Copenhagen Kastrup.
