Germany. Lufthansa, pilots agree wide-ranging deal on pay, pensions
Lufthansa and its pilots’ union have reached agreement on a wide-ranging labour contract, including pay rises, changes to pension schemes and job creation, bringing an end to years of wrangling and strikes, the two sides said on Wednesday.
The agreement on pensions and early retirement payments will boost the company’s profit in 2017 and reduce its pension liabilities by a high hundred-million-euro amount, it said in a statement.
In exchange, management has agreed that at least 325 of its planes will be staffed by pilots on the new collective agreement, which runs until June 2022, and to create jobs for prospective captains.
“This agreement on a wide-ranging solution offers a major chance to settle the pay conflict that has been going on for years,” a spokesman for union Vereinigung Cockpit said in a statement.
Lufthansa has long been seeking ways to bring costs down as it battles leaner Gulf carriers on long-haul and fast-growing low cost rivals on short-haul routes.
Full Content: Reuters
