Air France staff plan strikes over pay dispute

Industrial action at Air France has been ordered by unions representing the airline's staff, who have locked horns with the company's management over a request for a 6% pay rise.

Stoppages have been planned by the unions on the 10 and 11 April.

“If I have to book new ticket within a short time, it’s very expensive. And they are saying they cannot do anything about that. It’s totally ridiculous,” Harinath Reddy, an Indian software engineer whose connecting flight in Paris between Nuremberg in Germany and Mumbai was cancelled, said.

The industrial action taken by the airline union representatives will overlap nation-wide strikes issued by the state-run railway company SNCF, in protest to Emmanuel Macron’s bid to modernize the company.

The new policy would include a reform that would end the job-for-life guarantees that employees currently enjoy at the railway company.

Around 35% of workers needed to operate the company smoothly are expected to be absent on Sunday, a SNCF spokesperson said yesterday.