LOT staff threaten action over "unsafe" aviation law

Pilots and flight personnel from Polish Airlines LOT claim that the new aviation law is a hazard to air traffic and announced at a press conference yesterday that they are to file the case to the Constitutional Tribunal, if it is signed by the President. LOT authorities, however, say that the accusations are groundless. According to the aviation law, the maximum working time may be extended to 18 hours a day. Pilots and flight personnel demand the law be changed to permit working up to 18 hours a day only on long-haul flights. In the opinion of LOT spokesperson Leszek Chorzewski, the claims are groundless, as an 18 hour limit will be used only on long-haul flights with the number of crew increased by one or two. Zbigniew Dymara, a pilot who participated in yesterday's press conference, said that LOT's labor costs account for 8.9% of the company's budget whereas in the case of competing carriers it is 17-18% and sometimes even 20%. Other representatives of their crews added that LOT's recent bad condition is not the result of costs but of bad management. "Such working hours are nothing unusual in other airlines," said deputy head of the Transportation Commission, Boguslaw Liberadzki. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) A.Z.