Danish pension fund AkademikerPension has said that it is selling its stake in budget airline Wizz Air WIZZ.L over alleged “human and labour rights abuses” towards its workers.
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The $23 billion fund was one of 14 investors that called on Wizz in December to allow employees to form and join trade unions, saying their research suggested it was discouraging the practice in breach of staff rights.
AkademikerPension said this month that, after meeting management, it saw no sign the airline’s practices would change, and so it had begun to divest its holding, worth more than $3 million. The market value of London-listed Wizz Air is around $5.8 billion.
The fund said that it had sold the shares it directly held in Wizz Air on 1 February, and had given its external fund managers until 8 February to do the same.
“After engaging with the company’s management, we are in no way reassured that they will initiate the changes we have requested with regard to human and labour rights issues,” said AkademikerPension chief executive Jens Munch Holst.
Responding to the fund’s criticism of labour rights at the airline, a spokesperson for Wizz Air said that sustainability is a core value for the company, citing its top ranking among European airlines according to such criteria from data provider Sustainalytics.
“Wizz Air takes the engagement with its employees very seriously and we are confident that our structures and processes that have been in place to support open and transparent engagement are working extremely well, including our People Council, which provides a forum for employees to discuss important issues,” the airline said in a statement.
As airlines continue to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wizz Air noted its plan to hire more than 1,000 staff in the coming months and said that it has restored the pay of cabin crew and staff to pre-pandemic levels.
The move by AkademikerPension followed an…