BERLIN: Lufthansa made a new offer on pay and conditions for its pilots on German collective labour contracts in a bid to resume talks with the union and end a long-running dispute.
The German airline is trying to cut costs and restructure pension schemes to better compete with low-cost rivals and leaner Gulf carriers.
It has already agreed wide-ranging deals with ground staff and cabin crew, but has so far failed to reach agreement with around 5,400 pilots on German contracts.
Along with a pay rise of 4.4 percent in two stages, and a one-off payment, Lufthansa on Wednesday proposed keeping an early retirement scheme for new employees, provided the average retirement age of its German airline pilots is brought up to 60, from 59 now. Lufthansa had previously wanted to scrap the scheme for new pilots, but the union, Vereinigung Cockpit, wanted it to stay.
Lufthansa also offered to guarantee that pilots on German collective labour agreements would fly a fleet of 330 planes, including 100 long-haul jets, to appease concerns that jobs could be shifted to pilots on lower-cost contracts.
Informal talks between the two sides had collapsed last week. "We hope that on the basis of this new offer we can restart talks again," a spokesman said.
A spokesman for Vereinigung Cockpit said its initial response was to be sceptical but it would carefully examine the proposal.
Comments
Comments are closed.