The European Transport Workers’ Federation condemns the decision to pay out a £100 million bonus to Wizz Air’s CEO József Váradi as a reward for the rapid growth of the carrier.
Wizz Air is a company with an infamous history of anti-social practices – unlawful dismissals, disregard of the right to organise, union busting, and social dumping, to name a few. It is no secret that Wizz Air workers face harsh working conditions, poor remuneration, and unfair, sometimes even unlawful, practices from management side.
Wizz Air has been making money at the cost of transport workers for a long time. Rewarding József Váradi with a £100,000,000 bonus for running the airline this way is inappropriate and unacceptable, even more so in the midst of a pandemic that has left many aviation workers exposed to job insecurity, health and safety risks including mental health risks, excessive workload, stress, and fatigue.
Rewarding the CEO on the basis of expansionism of a company, regardless of its profit, environmental footprint, the state of working conditions, respect to social and labour rights and workers’ wellbeing is utterly disrespectful not only to the workers but also to their families and society at large. The ETF calls on shareholders to rescind this bonus, and base any future bonuses for airline’s top executives on building a sustainable company with decent working conditions, decent remuneration, well-functioning social dialogue, and well-being of employees rather than solely on growth and profit based on workforce exploitation.
