LOT lays off 67 workers over strike

Polish national airline LOT laid off 67 employees over work absences Monday against a backdrop of ongoing strikes protesting labour conditions, the state-run company’s CE Rafal Milczarski said. “It was a sad but necessary decision,” said Milczarski Monday, according to the local state news agency PAP. 3,000 people currently work at LOT. The airline’s labour unions condemned the decision. “It’s another form of bullying,” said Karol Sadowski, the lawyer representing the pilot and cabin crew unions currently taking part in the strike, adding that the decision to lay off workers was in his opinion illegal. The company failed to provide adequate concessions to the striking workers, Sadowski said. A spokesman for LOT said the layoffs were carried out legally. LOT’s unions are taking collective action over working conditions in Poland, arguing against the imposition of self-employment contracts.<br/>