Updated Lufthansa response to Labour Court ruling on pilots’ strike action

Lufthansa welcomes the decision of the Hessen Labour Court in Frankfurt am Main to prohibit the strike action by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union with immediate effect.

The Court described the VC’s strike action as “evidently unlawful” in that, for the VC, the strike was clearly motivated not only by the official reason stated, i.e. pilots’ transitional retirement provisions, but also by the Wings Concept of the Lufthansa Group. This was not, the Court found, a valid strike objective. The Court further noted that the VC was not prepared to enter into overall mediation unless the Wings Concept was included therein.

The Court’s ruling does not permit recourse to any further legal channels.

Lufthansa will offer its customers flight schedules that are virtually back to normal from tomorrow onwards, together with its usual reliable service. For planning certainty reasons, today’s special timetable will remain in effect.

Lufthansa remains willing to resume its negotiations on all open collective labor agreement items with the VC’s Group Collective Labour Agreement Committee at any time. “Our goal is still to work with the VC to find a joint solution to all the open CLA issues through the negotiating process,” confirms Dr. Bettina Volkens, Chief Officer Corporate Human Resources of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Group Media Relations, 09.09.15