A SUBSIDIARY OF Spanish airline Air Europa illegally charged candidates €60 to apply for jobs as pilots and cabin crew, unions said.
The final interviews for 100 jobs as pilots and 150 positions as cabin crew at Air Europa Express, the airline’s low-cost subsidiary, were held yesterday at a hotel in the Mediterranean city of Valencia, they said.
“If this time they asked for €60, we have no idea what they may charge the next time,” said Isaac Valero, a representative of Spanish trade union, Union Sindical Obrera at Air Europa.
The union received a copy at the beginning of January of an e-mail which the airline sent to candidates for jobs demanding the fee, he added.
Air Europa Express began operating on Monday.
The Spanish Guild of Commercial Aviation Pilots (COPAC) has filed a complaint with the local labour and social security inspectorate “because any selection process should be based on professional criteria,” said COPAC spokesman Miguel Angel San Emeterio.
“Any type of charge is immoral,” he said.
Charging to apply for a job is “illegal” because it violates the principle of non-discrimination in access to employment, he added.
An Air Europa spokesman did not confirm that job candidates were charged a fee, saying only that the company was “very pleased” with the selection process for staff for its low cost subsidiary.
Air Europa, owned by tourism company Globalia, is the third largest air carrier of passengers in Spain.
Spain is grappling with an unemployment rate of just over 21%, the highest in the European Union barring Greece.
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