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About half of the Dnata employees had decided to participate in Sunday’s walkout in protest of a five-percent pay increase, but a deal has been reached to end an hours-long strike by ground staff at the Geneva airport, which had caused numerous flight delays and cancellations during the holiday rush.
"Victory!", the SSP public sector union said on X , formerly Twitter, shortly before midday.
The workers began their strike about eight hours earlier, at 4 am (0300 GMT), demanding "dignified working conditions and decent wages" from their employer, the Dubai National Air Travel Agency (dnata).
The employees "have succeeded in repelling attacks on their retirement fund and in obtaining improved salaries, indemnities and overtime compensation", SSP said.
Dnata, an Emirati airport service provider, confirmed in a statement "the resolution of the industrial action", adding that its employees had returned to work at noon.
Dnata was scheduled to provide assistance for 85 of the 419 flights scheduled on Sunday, a day when the Geneva airport was expecting 52,000 passengers to travel through.
Geneva airport stressed Sunday that it had not been involved in the dispute between dnata and its employees, and said it regretted that the strike had gone ahead while negotiations were ongoing.
The airport said six flights had been cancelled as a result, while some others had been delayed by more than an hour.
Dnata reportedly counts around 600 staff at the airport who handle various ground operations, including ticketing services and baggage handling, for a number of international airlines such as British Airways, Air France and KLM.
According to the union, around half of the dnata staff had agreed to take part in Sunday's strike, demanding a five-percent salary hike.
After several rounds of negotiations, the parties had agreed to the three-percent wage increase proposed by the company, SSP said in a statement.
The deal also provides for a 500-Swiss-franc ($584) bonus in January, it said, meaning a total rise of more than four percent on average.
SSP, which had accused dnata of exerting "pressure" and threatening to fire striking staff, announced those threats had been dropped and the company had agreed to pay the workers for the hours they were on strike.
A strike notice was voted earlier by half of the employees as the airport was all set to welcome up to 60,000 passengers per day at the end of the year.
Supported by the SSP union, the employees had opposed the change in the percentages of contributions for professional pensions which was imposed on them by management. They feared significant drops in income upon retirement, up to 120,000 francs, according to their calculations.
Dnata said , Sunday's agreement
"reinforces our dedication to maintaining a strong social partnership, fostering a cooperative working environment, and ensuring the continued success of our company".
Before the strike on Sunday, Dnata had offered to raise salaries by three per cent, and has also agreed to drop a controversial plan to cut contributions to staff retirement funds, but that was not enough to satisfy the workers.
