The airline in crisis Lufthansa announced Wednesday the signing of an agreement with its pilots waiving all redundancies before April 2021 in return for wage cost reductions in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. " Lufthansa has signed a short-term agreement with the pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), to put in place measures to manage the coronavirus crisis ," the leading European airline group said in a statement. This plan, valid until the end of the year, provides " that the dry layoffs [of pilots] " are carried out " at the earliest in the second quarter of 2021 ", ie early April.
Read also: Lufthansa could put its maintenance on the stock market
In return, the pilots undertake to reduce certain income and gratuities. Salary increases negotiated for 2020 will also be postponed to 2021, adds the group. Lufthansa warned, however, that the “ number of dry layoffs can only be limited with a long-term agreement ”. In particular, the group suggests measures to reduce working time or wages, in exchange for jobs that are retained. In a statement, the VC pilot union for its part called to " exclude any dry dismissal " in such an agreement.
Lufthansa announced in April its desire to cut 22,000 full-time positions worldwide out of 138,000 employees, as part of a vast restructuring plan made inevitable because of the coronavirus pandemic which plunged it into the worst crisis in his history. The boss of the group, Carsten Spohr, had judged in early August that it had become " unrealistic " to avoid dry layoffs in the face of the crisis. Lufthansa is also in negotiations with the Verdi union, which represents its ground staff, but unilaterally broke off discussions in early August. The group was saved from bankruptcy by the German state, with aid of 9 billion euros and a participation of Berlin in its capital.
