The Spanish airport authority AENA has apparently instructed staff to do what they can to ease the process and reduce waiting times. Officials at Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona-El Prat, Málaga, Alicante and Palma airports have confirmed that the technology is working correctly but they have acknowledged that passenger volumes at peak times can quickly exceed the capacity of the checkpoints.
According to instructions recently issued to frontline staff airports may temporarily divert families and passengers with reduced mobility to traditional stamping queues when the wait in biometric queues exceeds 25 minutes. They may also stagger flight arrivals by coordinating with Aena’s slot management team. These measures are apparently “adjustments, not a suspension”, and that biometric capture remains mandatory for first-time registrants.
But, those steps to ease congestion for people with reduced molibility could be thrown into confusion this week. The partial strike by staff providing assistance to passengers with reduced mobility at Palma Airport, in protest at the serious employment situation facing the workforce and the lack of solutions from the company Adelte, will begin this Monday.
The stoppages will take place between 12.00 and 15.00 and 18.00 and 21.00, according to a statement issued by the works council. They will continue indefinitely and throughout the week at various times. On Tuesdays, they will be from 5 am to 7 am, from 12 noon to 2 pm and from 6 pm to 8 pm; on Wednesdays from 12 noon to 3 pm and from 6 pm to 9 pm; on Thursdays from 5.00 am to 7.00 am, 12.00 pm to 2.00 pm and 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm; on Fridays from 12.00 to 15.00 and from 18.00 to 21.00; on Saturdays all day; and on Sundays from 12.00 to 15.00 and from 21.00 to 23.59.
The workers have publicly complained that the company has been breaching its agreements for months in a climate of “constant improvisation” and a work organisation based on “daily pressure” on the workforce.
They have also complained that there are dozens of workers on part-time contracts who continue to work extended hours practically every day, often notified with just a few hours’ notice or even on the same day, in many cases far exceeding the working hours specified in their contracts.
According to data held by the works council, over the past year more than 9,000 hours of extended working hours were carried out on an ad hoc basis and with last-minute notice. In April of this year alone, more than 1,800 hours were reportedly worked under this same system.
Added to this issue is the failure to negotiate a digital disconnection protocol, problems regarding health and safety at work, and the absence of specific studies on work-related stress, workload at busy points in the airport, and difficulties in maintaining a minimum schedule for breaks, holidays and work-life balance.
The committee and the company met last Thursday at the Balearic Islands Arbitration and Mediation Tribunal (Tamib) to try to resolve the labour dispute, but failed to reach any agreement. The workers’ legal representatives accused Adelte of refusing to address the main labour and organisational issues affecting the workforce on a daily basis.
They refused to address the “constant” extensions of working hours, the “improvisation”, the lack of stability, the “abuse” of part-time contracts, the right to digital disconnection, or the “continuous deterioration” of working conditions. The committee also publicly denounced the fact that company representatives referred to the workers who turned out to support the staff’s demands as a “fun show”.