The End Is Finally in Sight for Lufthansa Pilot Dispute

Long-running labor problems at Germany’s flag carrier have resulted in lost billions and over a dozen strikes.

After five years, billions of dollars in losses and more than a dozen strikes, Lufthansa has finally hashed out a deal to resolve its long-running pilot dispute. On Wednesday, both the carrier and Cockpit, the union representing Lufthansa’s pilots, confirmed that they had come to an agreement on a wage settlement that would affect the salaries 5,400 staff. AP reports that arbitration proceedings began in December 2016.

According to a press release issued by Lufthansa, the new agreement includes a four-stage raise in pay, which would amount to a total increase of 8.7 percent. It has also been revealed that, collectively, the pilots will also see a one-time payment of €30 million ($32 million). This will work out to about €5,000 to €6,000 ($5,335 to $6,402) per pilot.

In their original petition, the pilots had initially sought raises of 3.66 percent dating back five and a half years.

These new conditions will be locked into place until the end of 2019, but Markus Wahl, the spokesman for Cockpit, said that union members must ratify the deal themselves before it is finalized.

But speaking of the impact of the agreement, Dr. Bettina Volkens, chief human resources officer at Lufthansa warned that “implementing the mediation recommendation will generate additional cockpit remuneration costs, even though we started with the aim of lowering costs in the cockpit of Lufthansa and thus able to grow again.”

“Without any compensation in other collective agreements, we must, therefore, take the path of changing our fleet planning. At the same time, we are continuing to work hard to find ways to reduce costs with our collective bargaining partner in order to achieve our growth potential in the group tariff agreement, too,” she added.

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