EasyJet aims to require flight crew to undergo COVID-19 tests. This is what the Dutch Cabin Crew Association (VNC) says, which therefore abruptly halted talks with the airline about testing flight attendants, for example.

According to the Union, the testing policy should at all times be based on voluntary choices of employees. From a legal point of view, a requirement for a test would not even be possible, the VNC States. The association formally protests easyJet and wonders why the British low-cost airline does not solve crew testing in the same way as, for example, KLM.

At KLM, the test policy is set up through so-called reverse voluntary behaviour. This means that each crew member is in principle in agreement with testing unless they actively indicate that they do not want to be tested.

At first, easyJet seemed to be sympathetic to this approach, VNC indicates. But later, according to the Union, the company claimed that it would be administratively impracticable. The VNC has serious doubts about this:

“if the much larger KLM does succeed, then it should not be a problem for the 174 easyJet crew members at the Amsterdam base.”