Madam President,

We are gathered here today at a time when an unprecedented crisis is affecting the whole of society, air transport and, of course, the Air France KLM group.

This crisis should not make you forget the fundamentals of what the "Principles of the Air France KLM Group" are.

After reading the documents you have provided us with and studying the results of a survey we carried out among our representatives in European countries (excluding France and the Netherlands), we would like to
express several feelings that all revolve around incomprehension and indignation.

First of all, a general feeling, in almost all European countries, around the question of the general feasibility of your projects.

Have you checked that the projects you are putting on the table will enable you to get through the crisis, but will also enable you to project the Group into a positive future?

We believe that in many cases, this is not the policy that has been followed locally. 

In a certain number of countries, for example the Nordic countries, the countries involved by the ACE 21 project. and Greece, we are seeing unworthy attitudes on the part of Air France KLM managers.

In many cases this can be considered unacceptable social violence:
- lack of dialogue
- dismissal of trade union representatives
- lack of transparency
- elimination of "nuisances".

We believe that all these attitudes are contrary to the "Air France KLM Group Principles".

We have already alerted you to the fact that in this very special situation the key word in labor relations throughout Europe must be respect for employees, for individuals who are men and women who have often given a lot for the Air France KLM group, and respect for a certain number of rules for living together.

We do not understand why in several countries the State aid announced is not used by the Air France KLM group.

We believe that very often forced redundancies are made when we could have seen a proposal for a VDP (voluntary departure plan) from management.

These feelings emerge in a survey we have carried out, which shows that employees feel badly regarded in various European countries.

I will end with the question of Cargo.

Your transformation project for Northern Europe is obviously a transnational project and falls within the scope of our protocol, which itself stems from French law and European directives.

This information that we have today can only be considered as Information and should give rise in a few weeks to another meeting of the European Works Council for Consultation.

Thank you !

Despite the difficult conditions for maintaining the necessary social dialogue, the European Works Council decided to organize an informal meeting, by videoconference, in order to take stock of the situation related to the coronavirus epidemic in all European countries.

The purpose of this meeting was to provide us with precise information on the situation of the Air France KLM Group and its subsidiaries.

Management has painted an alarming picture of the situation in air transport and the Air France KLM Group. 

With a drop in revenue of around 80% for the month of March and even worse forecast for April, a network reduced to its bare bones for both long-haul and short- and medium-haul services, the situation of our group is catastrophic. 

Obviously, we will continue to take action to maintain all possible activities, particularly in the cargo sector, and to preserve the prevent us from expending the maximum amount of cash.

In this extremely difficult situation the help of different governments, but especially that of France and the Netherlands is obviously a privileged axis in the concerted actions that help even the Group to ensure its survival.

In the given fact that each national government has its own legislation to deal with the current situation, we call upon the management to show a social face towards each and every employee in the Air France KLM Group. The Management has promised to provide the European Works Council with an overview of the social impact in the European markets outside the home markets. 

An update was given on the Cargo business ship and we have asked the Industrial Directorate General for information on the situation.

Employee representatives in Europe also asked for information on the commercial campaigns that are planned to bring in as much revenue as possible, as soon as possible. 

We have also requested that wherever Air France KLM Group employees, of their subsidiaries or subcontractors are in contact with customers, all health protection measures should be taken. 

We were given an update on the financial aspects at the end of March and what the prospects were.

Finally, the management announced the measures to postpone the payment of 2019 bonuses (no change in substance, just a postponement of the payment), probably until October 2020. 

The Air France KLM European Works Council have reiterated to has insisted on showing the Group's management that all staff are united and that they demand fairness in the decisions taken to get through this serious crisis.

Employee representatives from Air France, KLM and all their subsidiaries throughout Europe, including France and the Netherlands, met on 14 November 2019 in Paris.

Several points were discussed during this meeting

• AFKL Financial Results
• Winter 2019 Program
• Europe Update
• Bigblank
• Update of FROM

AFKL FINANCIAL RESULTS

Some figures from Quarter 3 in this presentation:

• Operating result of more than €900 million
• Revenue +2%
• Fuel expenses up by €135 million

The group's Maintenance and Transavia are performing well!

But the Stations and the Cargo are still under pressure.

The French domestic network is also in difficulty.

Employee representatives are concerned about these mixed results and fear that in order to further improve performance managers in Europe will put service restructuring on the table again and again.

Many questions were asked about Air France's short and medium-haul strategy, the place of HOP, the development of Transavia.

The AFKLEWC will remain very vigilant on the evolution of the group's strategy.

WINTER 2019 PROGRAM

Here again, many points were raised to clarify the orientation of the group's programme.

For Air France the programme is certainly up + 3.1% planned in winter 2019 and +4.3% compared to the actual W18 figure.

Concerning KLM, the information given is much less precise, so we cannot assess the progress or otherwise of the overall KLM programme.

Also more information is required on the Cargo fleet and routes. This has been requested for future presentations

As far as Transavia is concerned:

• Transavia Netherlands + 0% for the winter
• Transavia France - 7%. (a decrease in midweek but reinforced weekend patterns)

Here again, the employee representatives wanted to ask the group's managers about the strategy because it is not clear from the documents presented.

EUROPE UPDATE

Teams in Europe experience daily changes in both organisations and strategies. We have carefully studied the "flight plan 2019" for Europe based on 4 pillars:

• The customer
• Revenue
• Efficiency
• People

Following requests from employee representatives, the Group's Management presented us with the 7 priority projects for 2019 and their progress:

P1          Focus Flying Blue: How to improve Flying Blue coverage ratio.

P2          Business Intelligence Simplification and alignment of central and local B.I. reports

P3          Optimize central-local cooperation with Bluebiz

P4          Improve our capabilities in terms of Marketing Analytics

P5          Improve Salesforce.com tool and usage for performance management

P6          Work with Customer Experience to improve feedback on product improvements for B2C, B2B, B2T

P7          Changing CDG perception

Many questions remain unresolved and questions arise about the tools that are currently being developed.

Regarding Salesforce.com the EWC expressed its concern on the usage of the current SFDC tool, which is the mandatory sales reporting tool for our sales people in commercial and cargo. Rather than being used primarily as a sales tool it is increasingly being used as a tool to measure the performance of sales staff. It is considered that it is not being properly directed towards increasing sales opportunities but in meeting artificial call, actions and opportunity targets.

The new EPS (Employee Promoter Score) tool will be launched at 4 pilot sites, including Spain. Questions remain as to the usefulness of the information provided from this polling method.

For the AFKL EWC, it is important to be very cautious about this new tool for ascertaining employee’s state of mind. We have requested that the implementation of this project be monitored by the AFKLEWC.

To conclude, we decided to employ two actions to collect information on the situation in the different European countries:

1. The announcements and discussions on the proposals for wage developments for 2020
2. The conditions for setting up telework

BIGBLANK

This project was launched in 2018 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air France KLM SA to launch innovative projects in the domain of travel outside the core business of the Group (with 9 full-time employees).

After 2 years, the Management decided to close this subsidiary during the 1st quarter of 2020. The AFKLEWC have asked to be informed on the social consequences for the staff involved.

Up to 4 million euros were invested in this venture with what appears to be no tangible return on investment.

FROM UPDATE

It is a subsidiary based in Switzerland that acts on behalf of AFKL that manages the international mobility of ‘FROM’ (foreign resource) talents.

This concerns AFKL Group employees on local contracts (outside France and the Netherlands) identified as talents in their local position, with recognised international management potential.

Management provided an update on the project. Today there are a total of 16 FROM talents, 14 men and 2 women. They have been hired for various Group positions throughout the world.

The average length of service of these employees is 19 years and the average age is 47.

ELECTION FRENCH MEMBER OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE

Christophe Malloggi has been elected unanimously.

During this session, the Management of the Group AFKL made to the staff representatives of all the countries of Europe an update on the situation in Europe.

In spite of positive revenue figure the results are below forecast.

These pessimistic figures drive the management of the Group to announce new cost savings measures.

In particular, the staff representatives regret that a measure of general cancellation of duty travel is imposed on the European delegations while this measure appears more nuanced in France and the Netherlands.

This dramatization is harmful to the efficiency of the teams in the field and causes frustration when the information is not consistent and that that these restrictive measures apply to all the levels of the hierarchy.

The AFKLEWC has witnessed without any information given by the Management the crisis still shaking the Air France Group

This crisis, which put some of the Air France unions against their management, has become a source of anxiety and anger for employees of the other components in the AFKL group.

It is the president of the group who resigns creating a crisis of governance, whereas the disagreement concerns only Air France

On top of the consulted employees in France, nearly 55,000 employees in France, the Netherlands, Europe and around the world are now concerned about the future of the group and therefore their jobs.

They could be threatened when the conflict does not concern them while no one (neither French management nor inter-union) has ever informed them or asked for their opinion

The ongoing days of strike have put an increased workload on all our staff, who did their utmost to accommodate impacted passengers to keep their loyalty to our group. And now they fear that the great efforts made by them -not only during the strike but for many years- are annihilated by the ‘non’- voters in France.

The AFKLEWC  is the place of convergence and joint work for 12 years between the representatives of the work councils of Air France, and KLM, and all of their European country subsidiaries. 

Today, AFKLEWC is the spokesperson for all these group employees who wish to turn the page of this sad sequence and return to the path of growth that alone guarantees our future and our jobs.

Air France KLM European Works Council

Select Committee

AFKLEWC Advice - JV North Atlantic,

Extra Plenary Meeting, Feb 5, 2018

The AFKLEWC is consulted this Monday 5th of February 2018 on the Blue Skies project (evolution of the transatlantic joint venture).

In the ambition to build on the strong joint position on routes between Europe and North America, Air France-KLM (AFKL) and Delta (DL) have decided to form a new joint venture (JV) with DL's JV partner Virgin Atlantic (VS). This JV replaces the existing JV between AFKL, DL and Alitalia.

Discussions have recently led to a definitive agreement for this new North-Atlantic JV between Air France-KLM, Delta Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, which will enable us to:

• protect and develop AFKL activity on our most profitable network;
• provide a structural answer to Alitalia’s positioning in the JV;
• rebalance the financial settlement between parties;
• create and share in synergies with Virgin Atlantic.

The AFKLEWC considers this development of the JV as good news and gives a positive advice on this project.

However, the AFKLEWC would like to obtain several answers and guarantees concerning the Group's teams in Europe and particularly in the UK.

The search for synergies with Virgin Atlantic must should not result in headcount reductions for the AFKL Group in the UK especially in the London and Manchester and Edinburgh corridors. On the contrary, headcount should be adapted throughout Europe if this evolution of the JV will lead to a significant increase in workloads. Indeed, the EWC already notes a heavy workload following the following the various reorganizations in Europe and is worried about a possible additional overload.

The AFKLEWC also asks for clarification on the newly created associate member status, which remains very vague and also asks questions about the Group's teams in Italy (as political uncertainties in Italy and developments are worrying for our clients).

AFKLEWC Advice - New organization,

Extra Plenary Meeting, Feb 5, 2018

The AFKLEWC is consulted on Monday 5^th of February 2018 on a project to adjust the organization of the Air France-KLM Group.

The objectives of this adjustment:

• Develop a strategy for the Group, which will take into account the changing needs of our customers, market trends and the competitive environment, as well as the emergence of new technologies and their impact on our business.
• Explore opportunities to develop new activities
• Improve coordination between the Group and airlines on customer issues

To this end, Management's proposal consists of:

• Bring together in a single department all Group entities dealing with Strategy
• Ensuring proximity between long-term innovation and brand strategy
• To bring together in a single department all the Group Commercial departments together with the Client focused departments.
• Improve coordination between the "Group Communication" and "Air France Communication & Brand Management" departments.
• Maintain close cooperation with the Communication Departments of each company, as well as with all business lines.

The AFKLEWC shares the stated objectives for making this adjustment, and gives a positive advice to this project.

However, the KLM and Air France sales teams throughout Europe are also in contact with customers, market trends and the competitive environment, and need to be more closely involved in future strategic developments. Teams in Europe also want to ensure that the transfer of implementation and customer interaction functions within companies does not result in a backtracking of the excellent teamwork in the field. Furthermore, the AFKL Joint Teams request that procedures remain aligned and indeed even more aligned and further simplified.

The AFKLEWC also hopes that the commitment not to reduce staffing levels will be applied to teams in Europe, which have suffered a number of staff losses in recent years.

With regard to communication, the AFKLEWC notes that the notion of "double cap", discouraged in principle a few years ago, is now re-appearing.

Does this foreshadow a change of philosophy in the Group's organization?

Further, the AFKLEWC asks the Group Presidency if the position of General Secretary and Group HR Director and therefore, Chairman of the AFKLEWC will be filled quickly.

The AFKLEWC asks that a follow-up of these function and evolutions can be reviewed by the AFKLEWC in the "Group Strategy Commission".

EWC extraordinary plenary meeting - Agenda
February 5th, 2018
 

1. Consultation - New organization
2. Consultation - JV North Atlantic

Final Declaration, Plenary Meeting, Oct 10, 2017
 

This meeting was chaired by Mr. GATEAU, following the departure of Mr. NANTY, our former Chairman.

A new Secretary General of the Air France KLM Group should be appointed very quickly and will be our new President.

1. SITUATION OF THE GROUP IN EUROPE

The meeting started with the presentation of Mr. ter Voert with a positive picture on the European market situation, things look promising for the coming months.

The four pillars of the business plan focus on customer, revenue, efficiency and staff.

Despite the good results and optimistic prospects, the CGEAFKL insisted that these results are only possible thanks to the involvement, professionalism and hard work of Air France KLM's teams and their subsidiaries in Europe.

Lire la suite ...

EWC plenary meeting - Agenda
October 10th, 2017
 

1. Europe update
2. Information - Acquisition of equity stakes
3. Information - New organization
4. Information - JV North Atlantic
5. Election of a new member for the Board of Directors of Air France KLM
6. Winter 17 Program AF / KLM / HOP! / TO
7. AF KL Financial results
8. JOON

The Air France KLM European Works Council (AFKL EWC) is a body for the information and consultation of employees' representatives on issues concerning the whole Group, its subsidiaries and subsubsidiaries. It shall also be consulted with respect to transnational issues within the areas of competence set out below : A transnational decision is one taken at Air France KLM Group level concerning two Air France KLM Group undertakings or companies operating in two different countries.

The AFKL EWC is composed of 33 members, 33 deputies and and 6 country attendees representing 21 European Countries

Protocol for EWC within the AFKL Group

Cargo Framework Agreement

Framework Agreement Outstations & Commercial organisations

AFKL PRINCIPLES

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