Spanish air traffic controllers to go on strike

MADRID — Spanish air traffic controllers voted Tuesday to strike over government changes to their work hours that reduce their overtime pay, a move that could disrupt flights at the peak of the tourist season.

A total of 92 percent of the country's 2,300 controllers with a right to vote cast ballots and almost all, 98.25 percent, voted in favour of the strike, the Union of Air Traffic Controllers (USCA) said in a statement.

The date for the strike is expected to be announced on Wednesday but since the union must give a 10-day warning, the earliest it could come is mid-August, the busiest time for the country's key tourist industry.

USCA said a strike "was the only alternative to denounce their labour conditions and, consequently, air traffic security."

The controllers, who are employed by state-run airport management firm AENA, are angry over a government decree on working conditions announced last week which would reduce rest periods and cut generous overtime benefits.

Their contracts stipulated a working year of 1,000 hours, which most of them topped up with a further 600 hours of overtime, that was paid at triple rate.

Under the new rules approved by the government last week, the controllers are now obliged to work 1,600 hours at a normal wage, which still gives them an annual salary of 200,000 euros (260,000 dollars) compared to 350,000 euros previously.

Earlier on Tuesday Transport Minister Jose Blanco said he saw "no reason" for a strike and called on the controllers to adopt the new rules "without delay." He also vowed to maintain minimum services during the walkout.

During recent railway sector strikes, minimum services has meant maintaining between 50 and 75 percent of traffic.

The government has called the "millionaire salaries" enjoyed by the controllers "incomprehensible privileges" at a time of austerity to slash Spain's public deficit, the eurozone's third-highest after Greece and Ireland.

Last month it also vowed an investigation into the sick leave taken by almost half the air traffic control staff at the control centre in Barcelona in what it suspects is an undercover strike.

It said it may deploy the military to replace Barcelona air traffic controllers on sick leave.

The government this year has introduced tough austerity measures to rein in a public deficit that hit 11.2 percent of gross domestic product last year as the country emerges from a recession that began in 2008.