100 cadets in various stages of five of El Al Airlines' steward courses were obliged to give up their employee cards today, and were notified that their course had been terminated. 60 pilots who were recruited for training by El Al last April will now not be hired by the airline.
Because of El Al's dire situation, air crew staff were notified that discussions were being conducted about various promotion and retraining courses in order to minimize the damage.
El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin announced last Thursday that the company would have to lay off 1,000 employees because of the coronavirus crisis. Thousands of El Al employees attended an emergency meeting today, at which they called for state aid for the airline.
El Al said in response, "In pursuance of the consequences of the coronavirus crisis facing the company, as part of the process of adapting its staff to the company's activity, cadets in El Al's pilots, air steward, and ground steward courses whose training has not yet been completed were notified that their training had been terminated, and that they would not be hired as El Al employees at this stage.
"The company is also making adjustments, including not beginning air and ground steward courses that were scheduled to open soon. We emphasize that no new employees are being hired until further notice."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 1, 2020
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