(In the second sentence it was corrected that it concerns the agreements on partial retirement rpt agreements on partial retirement.)
FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – The conflict between Lufthansa and the service union Verdi is worsening. After the negotiations on an overarching corona restructuring contract were broken off, the company terminated the agreements on partial retirement for around 80 employees at the decentralized locations that were abandoned. According to Verdi, employees in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Cologne, Bremen, Nuremberg and Hanover are affected.
“It is absolutely absurd to punish long-term employees in this way, because you think you will save personnel costs”, said the Verdi vice chairwoman and Lufthansa supervisory board member Christine Behle on Wednesday. With partial retirement one can secure the jobs of younger employees in a socially acceptable way, said the union. The fact that this model is now being rolled back is another low blow.
A company spokeswoman justified the layoffs with the lack of continued employment prospects for the people at the remaining hubs in Munich and Frankfurt as a result of the Corona crisis. A small group met who was still in the active phase of partial retirement at the end of May next year. Like many others, employees would be offered fair severance payments. The end of the decentralized locations was announced in 2015.
On the question of the renovation contribution of the 35,000 land workers, the group is still waiting for a substantially improved offer from Verdi, said the spokeswoman. The company broke off the talks unilaterally. The savings of around 600 million euros offered by Verdi to date correspond to only around 8 percent of the corresponding personnel costs instead of the necessary 20 percent.
The partially nationalized Lufthansa group had put its global surplus of personnel at 22,000 full-time positions after the Corona slump, of which around 11,000 are in Germany. In the medium term, the group expects a fleet that will be reduced by 100 jets. Lufthansa basically agrees with the flight attendants on the savings contribution, while so far there has only been a short-term interim solution for the pilots until the end of the year./ceb/DP/stw
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