Lufthansa announced on Wednesday that they have concluded a short-term agreement with Vereinigung Cockpit, the pilot’s union, for crisis measures through the end of the year. As part of the deal, the carrier will avoid pilot redundancies until at least Q2 of 2020.
On Wednesday (August 19, 2020), Lufthansa announced that they have agreed on a package of short-term crisis measures with their pilot’s union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) through 2020. The union has agreed to reduced top-up payments for short-time working compensation benefits, compensation adjustments and reductions in pension benefits. In return, Lufthansa will avoid pilot redundancies until at least the second quarter of 2021. The parties continue to negotiate reconciliations of interests and social plans, while an agreement on long-term pilot contributions will be required to limit redundancies. The agreement applies to all pilots of Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Aviation Training as well as some Germanwings pilots.
The cost reduction measures will begin in September and continue until the end of 2020. Additionally, collective wage increases negotiated in 2020 will be postponed until January 2021. As previously mentioned, Lufthansa will avoid pilot redundancies due to business operations until at least March 31, 2020. However, the carrier warns that a significant overcapacity of pilots is expected to last well beyond that time period and therefore redundancies can only be limited past March 2020 with the conclusion of a long-term crisis agreement.
Lufthansa has further announced that they will refrain from hiring new pilots for German flight operations, including tourist-oriented operations, from outside the Group for as long as the pilot overcapacity situation exists. The package of short-term crisis measures has been approved by the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the Air Transport Employers’ Association (Arbeitgeberverband Luftverkehr) and the VC committees and is effective immediately.
Source: Lufthansa