In an welcome news, Cabin crew and management of the Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines have agreed on a new collective agreement.
The development was announced by the management and the Vida union. Earlier, employee representatives had called for the proposed wage increase to be improved and otherwise threatened a strike at Easter, could have been a major festival travel disruption.
The Austrian Airlines (AUA) had to agree with the vida union on the new collective agreement (KV) for the cabin crew and thus averted an impending labor dispute, as per the announcement.
With the consensus reached, travel is secured over Easter, according to AUA, which has 3,500 flying personnel. The collectively agreed and actual salaries will be increased by 11 percent retrospectively as of March 1st.
"The offer of 8.5 percent on an annual basis for 2023 has now become 11 percent including (tax-free, note) the inflation bonus," said Daniel Liebhart, chairman of the aviation department in the vida trade union, in a statement to the APA late in the afternoon.
The second cabin pay scheme will be eliminated. This means that the gross minimum salaries for cabin crew will be raised retrospectively to between EUR 2,000 (first year of service) and EUR 2,060 per month (third year of service) effective January 1st.
The reason for the labor dispute that has now been settled was the high inflation and the recent good result of the AUA. The management board and employee representatives had agreed on a new collective agreement in October. However, the union and works council then called for the conclusion to be improved.
"We have agreed with the company on a fair overall package under good economic conditions," says Liebhart. "We are particularly pleased that with the package we were able to raise the starting salaries for cabin crew to a significantly higher level."In addition, the savings package at the domestic Lufthansa subsidiary will be completely ended retrospectively as of January 1st. The pension fund contributions are also fully paid in retrospectively as of January 1st.
This means that the costs for cleaning the AUA uniforms will be borne by the company again from May 1st. As soon as possible there should also be free food for the crew on long missions and water in the hotel rooms paid for by the AUA.
"We are pleased that a stable, carefree start to the Easter holidays has been secured for the benefit of our guests," said Austrian Airlines.
"There is no longer any need for another works meeting," says Liebhart. "With this negotiation result, we have taken into account the most urgent needs of our flying colleagues at Austrian." The staff can concentrate on their work again.
In another development, Austrian Airlines is significantly expanding its program in the summer season. The Vienna International Airport based carrier is offering seven new destinations in the summer flight schedule 2023, which starts at the end of March and thus punctually for the Easter holidays, in addition to established destinations and a concentrated European programme.
