Lufthansa has agreed on a long-term collective agreement with Ver. DI trade union for approximately 30,000 ground employees. The rate increase was six percent, and airline and union agreed. It was agreed on a term of 33 months, so contract is valid until September 2020.

The ground staff should benefit from salary increases in two steps: retroactively from 1 February employees are to receive three percent more, from 1 May 2019 anor three percent will follow. This second stage was, however, linked to economic success of respective sub-company, Ver. di shared with. If agreed targets of Lufthansa-service group or Lufthansa systems are not reached, salary increase is only 1.8 percent. "With this variable remuneration model, we take into account economic situation of our individual business areas," said Lufthansa personnel director Bettina Volken.

Both sides were satisfied with result. Lufthansa agreed that a "long-term wage peace" had been achieved. Ver. Di also spoke of a "good result", but all demands could not be put into effect. The union had also proposed tariff models in which workers could have chosen between higher remuneration or free days. This proposal did not come through at first, but is to be discussed in working groups in future, said a union spokesperson.

With agreement, Lufthansa has now been able to achieve long-term collective bargaining with all employee groups. It was only last October that airline had settled long-standing tariff dispute with Pilots Union Association Cockpit, accompanied by fourteen strikes. A part of collective agreements with flight attendant trade union UFO, however, expires at end of 2018.

Date Of Update: 08 February 2018, 12:03