European transport union calls for minimal working requirements inside Lufthansa
- Unions want decent working standards within the Lufthansa Group.
- Lower standards of working conditions violate workers’ rights.
- Internal competition within Lufthansa could be resolved by enforcing collective agreements.
The establishment of minimum standards for the working conditions of employees in the entire Lufthansa Group is the first step to stop the ongoing social dumping, which the German airline tolerates shamefully but deliberately outside of its airlines.
European transport union calls for minimum labor standards within the Lufthansa Group
In a letter recently sent to the CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa, Mr. Carsten SPOHR, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) condemns “the lower social and labor standards for employees”, which the Lufthansa Group’s management continues to tacitly in its Eurowings Discover- Operation. The group believes that such action is the only immediate and possible solution to the current economic pressures in the market, which the ETF is opposed to.
According to the member organizations of the ETF – Kapers (Switzerland), Vida (Austria), Aircrew Alliance and ver.di (Germany) as well as B.United (Czech Republic) – this solution creates what is known as “internal cannibalism” and supports a race-to-market the bottom approach. Meanwhile, the lower standards of working conditions so far imposed by most low-cost airlines in Europe grossly violate basic workers’ rights, and the corporation is rushing to believe a similar belief. It is for this reason that the European Transport Workers Federation and its member organizations urge that this model not be viewed as a blueprint for the new units, as is the case with Eurowings Discover, the newest airline to last within the Lufthansa Group this month.
Rather, we are of the opinion that internal competition within the Lutfhansa Group could be resolved by enforcing collective bargaining agreements, including at Eurowings Discover, and this enforcement model should then continue to be implemented in all European companies. The Lufthansa Group’s workers unions and the ETF – which represents 5 million transport workers inside and outside Europe – believe that the very first step in this direction would be:
- Resumption of social dialogue in all airlines where it is not active, including Eurowings Discover and
- To create a common basis for the definition of minimum standards with regard to working conditions for thousands of employees of the Lufthansa Group who currently do not have a collective agreement.
Eoin Coates, Head of Aviation at ETF explains:
“It is of crucial importance that both employees and employers come out of this crisis together, and therefore we must enter into the social dialogue early on in order to focus on the smooth establishment of new companies and the transition through all necessary change processes with fairness and openness ensure. “such discussions.”
The ETF and its member organizations within the Lufthansa Group urge the management teams of all airlines in the Lufthansa Group to resume social dialogue with the representative unions in a coherent, efficient and lasting manner. This would be a clear signal that the Lufthansa Group is actually taking concrete steps to change the completely wrong course of the group by deciding to lower the social and labor standards for its employees in new companies.
