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See the full story · 2 sourcesAirbus workers had protested the plans to work on-site four days a week by September
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Airbus has backtracked on its plan to reduce remote working after protests from unions, including a series of strikes in its Spanish facilities, according to people familiar with the matter.
Spanish workers have been staging on-off industrial action since July, alongside sporadic protests in France over plans by Airbus to require white-collar staff to work on-site four days a week by September, rather than the current three.
Managers have now been advised that staff can retain existing arrangements that allow them to work at home an average of two days a week, effectively suspending the bid to introduce a mandatory limit of one day, the people said.
An Airbus spokesperson said: "Our objective remains the same: we aim for increased on-site presence to ensure better collective efficiency, knowledge transfer and faster decision-making.”
"However, effective change requires listening to our people. Based on employee feedback, we have decided to implement this transition more gradually."
The retreat on office-working deals a blow to a high-profile campaign led by CEO Guillaume Faury to draw staff back to the office as the industry seeks to meet record demand and prepare new products with thousands of relatively new staff.
Faury told staff in June that home-working had been a lifeline during the Covid-19 pandemic when the priority was minimising contact — but that now the opposite was the case as Airbus sought to ensure skills were shared in person.
"I count on all of you to support this," he said in the June memo, first reported by Bloomberg.
Tens of thousands of people have left the aerospace industry since Covid-19 and between 25 per cent and one third of Airbus's staff have joined the company in the past three years, according to French unions.
In Spain , about 40 per cent of Airbus's 14,000 workers have taken part in strikes over issues including teleworking, transport, paid leave and salary, according to unions.
Production has not so far been affected by disruption to white-collar ancillary functions.
Three Spanish unions have called for a three-hour stoppage on Monday to vote on a longer walkout. None of them was available for comment.
Airbus is not the only multinational group to face reluctance from employees to return to the office more often.
Strikes at the group are rare, but insiders say the intensity of the Spanish unrest has rattled Airbus leadership, prompting questions from the top on how it has been handled locally.
Human resources officials have pleaded with staff to "play together".
The fallout comes as aerospace and other sectors are struggling to attract young "Gen-Z" employees — reported to put a higher priority on work-life balance than the traditional corporate career ladder, according to recent Deloitte surveys.
Flexible working supports recruitment in an industry feeling increased competition from higher-paid "digital nomad" sectors such as AI, delegates said at last month's Farnborough Airshow.
The dispute has also brought to a head longstanding resentment inside Airbus's Spanish unit over its position inside Europe's largest aerospace group. Airbus this year appointed a Spanish chairperson for the first time since formally ending a system of Franco-German power-sharing more than a decade ago.
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