Lufthansa has asked the German pilots' union to return to talks as the airline tries to stave off another costly strike over changes to an early retirement scheme.
Vereinigung Cockpit, which represents most of Lufthansa's 5,400 pilots, decided in favour of imminent industrial action after it said late on Friday that talks about the scheme had failed.
"We are looking for a compromise and can't understand why the talks have been described as a failure," Lufthansa board member Bettina Volkens told reporters on Monday, saying the company wanted to avoid industrial action.
The row with the pilots relates to provisions for an early retirement scheme that dates back 50 years. Lufthansa pilots could only work until the age of 55, meaning there was an eight-year gap between the end of their career and the legal retirement age in Germany.
But European courts have now ruled they can work until 65 and Lufthansa wants to scrap the early retirement scheme, for which it set aside €1.1bn in its 2013 accounts. The pilots want to ensure their members still have the right to retire early if they wish, without losing the provisions.
Lufthansa had cancelled the scheme with effect as of this year, but after a three-day strike in April over the same issue it said it would keep the provisions in place until 2016, to allow more time for negotiations.
Shares in Lufthansa came under pressure from the strike threat on Monday, losing as much as 1.25% and making them the only faller on Germany's DAX. DZ Bank analyst Dirk Schlamp said a longer strike could threaten the 2014 earnings target at Lufthansa, which has already warned on profit this year.
"Moreover, it would again burden the company's reputation," he said. The three-day walkout by pilots in April cost Lufthansa €60m in lost profits in the first half of the year. In June, the airline cut its profit targets for the next two years. It cited the impact of the pilot strikes, which put people off booking for several months, as one of the reasons.
Raimund Mueller, head of flight operations at Munich, said he believed the pilots would give 24 hours' notice of any strike and that any action would not be as widespread as April's nationwide strike.
Volkens said Lufthansa would like to agree a timetable with the pilots' union for the talks, so if agreement is not reached by a certain date both sides can call for arbitration. A spokesman for the union was not immediately available for comment on Lufthansa's request to return to the negotiating table.
theguardian.com
Vereinigung Cockpit, which represents most of Lufthansa's 5,400 pilots, decided in favour of imminent industrial action after it said late on Friday that talks about the scheme had failed.
"We are looking for a compromise and can't understand why the talks have been described as a failure," Lufthansa board member Bettina Volkens told reporters on Monday, saying the company wanted to avoid industrial action.
The row with the pilots relates to provisions for an early retirement scheme that dates back 50 years. Lufthansa pilots could only work until the age of 55, meaning there was an eight-year gap between the end of their career and the legal retirement age in Germany.
But European courts have now ruled they can work until 65 and Lufthansa wants to scrap the early retirement scheme, for which it set aside €1.1bn in its 2013 accounts. The pilots want to ensure their members still have the right to retire early if they wish, without losing the provisions.
Lufthansa had cancelled the scheme with effect as of this year, but after a three-day strike in April over the same issue it said it would keep the provisions in place until 2016, to allow more time for negotiations.
Shares in Lufthansa came under pressure from the strike threat on Monday, losing as much as 1.25% and making them the only faller on Germany's DAX. DZ Bank analyst Dirk Schlamp said a longer strike could threaten the 2014 earnings target at Lufthansa, which has already warned on profit this year.
"Moreover, it would again burden the company's reputation," he said. The three-day walkout by pilots in April cost Lufthansa €60m in lost profits in the first half of the year. In June, the airline cut its profit targets for the next two years. It cited the impact of the pilot strikes, which put people off booking for several months, as one of the reasons.
Raimund Mueller, head of flight operations at Munich, said he believed the pilots would give 24 hours' notice of any strike and that any action would not be as widespread as April's nationwide strike.
Volkens said Lufthansa would like to agree a timetable with the pilots' union for the talks, so if agreement is not reached by a certain date both sides can call for arbitration. A spokesman for the union was not immediately available for comment on Lufthansa's request to return to the negotiating table.
theguardian.com
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