Avianca will have to pay 500 million to the Aviators Association for anti-union behavior.

The Supreme Court of Justice condemned Avianca to pay 500 million pesos to the Colombian Association of Civil Aviators (Acdac) for “damages caused by anti-union conduct,” reported Dinero.

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The Court’s ruling says that Avianca violated the right to union association, generating certain and evident damages to the organization, because its collective bargaining power was diminished “and its existence and sources of financing were seriously compromised.

The decision of the Supreme Court of Justice came after three years of the Avianca pilots’ strike that was considered the longest in the world, lasting 51 days. The pilots were demanding better working conditions and greater benefits for themselves and their families. Avianca said that the list of demands was exaggerated and the authorities classified the strike as illegal.

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According to the court, an investigation showed that Avianca had “a line of action” that aimed to “diminish the power of the plaintiff’s union, by offering workers better economic guarantees than those achieved through collective bargaining.

Due to the above, the Court concluded that the airline violated and conditioned the freedom of affiliation and disaffiliation of its workers, putting at risk the existence of Acdac.

“By means of gifts, benefits and indirect pressure measures, that go to the economic need of the workers, it forces them to withdraw from the union organization and, therefore, attempts against the right of union association”, said to Semana the judge rapporteur, Iván Mauricio Lenis, of the Labor Cassation Chamber.

According to the plaintiffs, the pressure from Avianca caused 210 members of Adcac to defect from the union and help the airline in the midst of the conflict.

“This gradual decline in membership weakened the collective voice of the union, which also prevented greater representation of the workforce in collective negotiations aimed at improving the material conditions of workers’ existence, an aspect that in the Colombian legal order has relevant repercussions because it could prevent the full execution of powerful pressure tools, such as the strike. And such aspects, without a doubt, encompass a common detriment, both to the union and to the workers who exercise their freedom to unionize”, says the Court’s ruling.

The $500 million payment order corresponds to the income not received by Acdac as a consequence of the massive disaffiliation of its members, indexation, interest and what was called “economic consequence”.