Lufthansa Reaches Agreement with Flight Attendants Union

Lufthansa announced Wednesday that it reached an agreement with the Unabhängige Flugbegleiter Organisation or UFO, the union that represents the majority of the airline’s flight attendants, which prohibits cabin crew from going on strike. The agreement comes following mediation led by former Brandenburg Prime Minister Matthias Platzek.

Among other conditions, the agreement will move employees from a defined-benefit pension system to a defined-contribution pension system.

The approximately 19,000 cabin crew will receive a 1% wage increase on October 1 of this year, and an additional 2% on January 1, 2018. Lufthansa and UFO also agreed to a new qualification-based compensation structure for cabin crew, which will see employees who complete an 18-month training course be eligible for compensation above level eight, or around a month.

The agreement also guarantees Lufthansa cabin crew employment through 2021.

Lufthansa and the union have been at loggerheads over a range of issues including pay and pensions in recent years, culminating in the longest-ever strike in the German carrier’s history in November 2015.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)