LUFTHANSA: Labor Peace With Pilots Comes With A Cost

by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 16, 2017 | Featured, Lufthansa, Strike, Vereinigung Cockpit | 1 comment

Lufthansa announced yesterday that they’ve agreed in principal to the recommendations that came out of mediation sessions with Vereinigung Cockpit.     Now it’s up to the Union to vote on the recommendations.   The vote is expected to take place by late March.

In summary, here is what the deal looks like:

• Pilots will get a retroactive pay raise of 2% going back to January 1, 2016, and an additional 2.3% pay raise effective January 1, 2017.
• On January 1, 2018, an additional raise of 2.4% will be paid, and yet another raise of 2% on January 2019.
• A one-time ‘bonus’ will be paid that will amount to €5000-€6000 per pilot.
• The deal would be in effect until 2019.

Keep in mind this is only one part of the multi-faceted labor issue.   The harder portion of reaching complete labor peace involves figuring out how pensions will be earned and paid.   So we’re not quite out of the woods yet.

Lufthansa, though agreeing to the proposal, did come back with a response that suggested consequences are in the offing as a result of this deal.    With the deal expected to cost Lufthansa at least €85 million annually, LH has suggested that it may use cabin crew on 40 aircraft that are not subject to the agreement.   Most likely this would come from the pilots being ‘acquired’ through the Air Berlin deal that sees LH operating AB aircraft on their routes beginning this year.   They are not subject to this agreement and would be one easy option to help mitigate at least some of the increase in labor cost.

Union representatives suggested that this deal may not be an easy one to sell to their members due to the issue revolving around the 40 aircraft that would have cockpit crew not covered by the agreement.

Also as part of the agreement and announcement, LH has indicated that no jobs will be impacted due to this arrangement.