The management of German airline Lufthansa and the union of its air crew (UFO) have reached an agreement on €500 million worth of savings, they announced on Wednesday night.
The savings package includes a freeze in wages, a reduction in flight hours and therefore pay, unpaid leave, voluntary departures and early pensions.
“The agreement now reached for Lufthansa cabin staff provides the urgently needed job security,” said Nicoley Baublies, chief negotiator for UFO. The contributions “mean security but also cuts for every cabin employee,” Baublies pointed out.
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“With the crisis package that has now been agreed, the company can avoid layoffs for the 22,000 cabin staff of Deutsche Lufthansa AG during the crisis. The agreements reached still require the approval of the UFO members,” Lufthansa communicated.
They “will hopefully lead to a clear approval of the German government’s rescue package,” Baublies said. Lufthansa’s shareholders will meet on Thursday to decide on the German government’s €9 billion rescue package. Heinz Hermann Thiele, the airline’s main shareholder, already announced that he would approve the package.
Management and unions of Lufthansa subsidiary Brussels Airlines have reached an agreement in principle on restructuring plans. The number of redundancies is not yet known, but the cut of up to 1,000 jobs, or a quarter of the workforce, had been announced as a necessary measure to ensure the competitiveness of Brussels Airlines.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
