El Al airplane
El Al airplaneFlash 90

Recent months have seen an ongoing legal battle between the pilots of Israeli airline El Al and the management of the company, Mako reported. These proceedings have resulted in numerous cancellations and delays of El Al flights.

The pilots have demanded an improvement in their work conditions, citing a lack of pilots and a resulting increase in working hours, which affects health and family life.

The management, on the other hand, claims that the pilots have already been generously compensated. According to Mako, management brought documents to court which proved recent dramatic increases in pilots' wages. The documents showed, for example, that the average salary of a pilot for the month of June was a whopping 96,000 shekels--and this was 21% higher than the average monthly salary a year before.

In response, Nir Tsok, a representative of the Pilot's Union, said that "El Al pilots are flying many more hours than they have been in the past, and have been requested to carry out an extreme number of flights to the detriment of their health and family life. It's sad that they ask us to take on more flights [and then complain] when wages go up, as if we stole or did something illegal," Mako reported.