Air traffic controllers sign new contracts with airspace authority

A total of 181 new employment contracts have been signed by air traffic controllers with the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PAZP) under an agreement reached with an air traffic controllers' union.

The PAZP said the development ensured continuity in providing air traffic control in Poland's airspace.

Unions and the PAZP had been at loggerheads for weeks in an industrial dispute that had threatened airlines' ability to fly to and from Poland until the stand-off was resolved in late June with the two sides reaching agreement on wages and working conditions.

"Pursuant to the agreement concluded between the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency and the Air Traffic Controllers Trade Union and on the basis of the new work regulations and remuneration regulations, on July 8 this year, 181 contracts with air traffic controllers were signed," the PAZP said in a statement.

The head of the PAZP, Anita Oleksiak, said in late June that the agency had accepted or would successively implement 24 demands concerning safety.

The PAZP management and union officials signed an agreement in late April, which was to be binding until July 10, by which time the parties were to work towards a final settlement. The deal provided for the PAZP to perform and an organisational and restructuring audit in return for which the union was to recommend its members return to duty.

The PAZP is the only institution in Poland training and employing air traffic controllers.