Lufthansa has reached an agreement with cabin crew union UFO amid the Coronavirus crisis, the company announced on Wednesday shortly before midnight.
According to the two parties, the agreement will create cost savings of half a billion Euros at this crucial time for Lufthansa. Thanks to this, major job losses among cabin crew can be avoided, the airline says.
UFO (Unabhängige Flugbegleiter Organisation, translated Independent Flight attendant’s Organisation) was pushing for a solution to keep the 22,000 cabin crew jobs at Lufthansa safe from redundancies during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
A number of measures were agreed on by UFO and Lufthansa, these include temporarily halting wage increases, reducing the overall flying hours (and therefore also the total pay), as well as voluntary steps, such as unpaid leave and early retirement.
On Thursday, Lufthansa shareholders will decide over a rescue package by the German government, worth up to €9 billion (US $10 billion). This financing is important to guarantee liquidity in the middle of a crisis that is expected to have longer-term effects on air travel business.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
