Lufthansa-union agreement on arbitration ruling: an attack on pilots in Germany

 

Lufthansa-union agreement on arbitration ruling: an attack on pilots in Germany

By
Dietmar Henning

18 February 2017

Lufthansa and the pilots union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) have accepted an arbitration ruling on compensation for 5,400 Lufthansa pilots. The airline linked the agreement with a new declaration of war on the pilots.

Both sides agreed to the settlement in mid-December, after months of negotiations. The labour dispute has dragged on since 2012, and the pilots have taken strike action 14 times since 2014. Most recently, they stopped work in November 2016 for six days. Lufthansa has demanded substantial cuts in salaries and pensions, as well as attacks on working conditions, in order to gain advantages against international competitors on the backs of the pilots.

The arbitration on wages, chaired by former UN diplomat and state secretary in the foreign office, Gunter Pleuger, ended on January 31 without the union reaching an agreement with Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and German Wings. Last week, Pleuger submitted his arbitration ruling, which both sides accepted this week.

The 5,400 pilots covered by the collective agreement with Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and German Wings will receive a total wage increase of about 8.7 percent in four stages. An increase of 2 percent will be backdated to January 1, 2016, and a 2.3 percent increase will be paid from January 1, 2017. Next year, monthly salaries will rise by 2.4 percent, and at the beginning of 2019 by a further 2 percent. The collective agreement expires at the end of 2019. In addition, the arbitration ruling provides for a one-off average payment of €5,000-6,000 for full-time employees.

The shareholders see the arbitration award as favouring them. The airlines’ shares rose on Thursday by almost 3 percent,…

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