The mood between the employee representatives and the management of Austrian Airlines has been tense for some time. The union and the works council are pushing for a new collective agreement, which should in particular include a significant increase in salaries.

An Austrian peculiarity also plays a role in the negotiations: Austrian Airlines is not allowed to conclude collective agreements itself. This is reserved for the professional representation, i.e. the Chamber of Commerce. Therefore, WKO and ÖGB officials are sitting at the negotiating table. In theory, a degree could also be completed without involving AUA management, but in practice the Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of its member Austrian Airlines.

In Austria there are so-called industry collective agreements in almost all sectors of the economy. The union and the respective professional representatives negotiate these, agree on them and then the “KV” then applies, for example, to all bakers, hairdressers, metal construction companies and so on. For historical reasons, there is no such industry-wide collective agreement in aviation. This has been heavily criticized by the ÖGB branch union Vida for many years. The employee representatives repeatedly call for such a contract to be concluded, but the Chamber of Commerce, which wants to stick to the current state of things, always rejects it.

There is no industry KV in Austrian aviation

But why is there no industry KV in aviation? Historically, this is because at the time of the “invention” of industry-wide collective agreements, Austrian Airlines was the only Austrian airline. So there was simply no need, as it was only the state-owned company at the time, which was treated as a kind of “flying ÖBB” in the federal budget. Only later, for example, Montana Austria, Lauda Air, Tyrolean Airways and other aviation companies were founded.

The peculiarity is that there are significantly more non-demand airlines in Austria that fly business jets than there are passenger airlines. In fact, only Austrian Airlines is left, because Eurowings Europe and Praise Europe flying under Maltese AOC. Although Easyjet Europe is formally an Austrian airline, there is not a single flying employee stationed on Austrian soil. However, branches of foreign carriers, in this specific case Wizz Air Malta, Lauda Europe and Eurowings Europe would also be considered, can also be covered by an industry collective agreement, provided they involve employees stationed in the Alpine republic. In the past, Wizz Air has repeatedly emphasized that it is of the opinion that a possible industry KV would not be effective due to the fact that it is not an Austrian company. The Vida union sees it completely differently.

The Chamber of Commerce justifies its rejection of an industry KV by saying that this sector of the economy would be very special and that companies would have very different needs. For example, Austrian Airlines' business model could not be compared with providers of on-demand flights (business jets). A uniform industry collective agreement would massively restrict or hinder companies in international competition. The union doubts this representation, especially since a contract could, for example, differentiate between scheduled aviation and business aviation.

Former gold rush atmosphere in Vienna

Before the corona pandemic, wages and salaries rarely rose significantly. Only after the bankruptcies of Air Berlin and Niki did some providers entice customers with special bonuses because there was a “gold rush atmosphere”. Wizz Air, Ryanair (as Laudamotion), IAG (as Level Europe) and the Lufthansa Group (under various brands; in Austria as AUA and Eurowings Europe), but also Easyjet (in Germany) wanted their share of the “cake”. In Vienna, fierce competition developed on short and medium-haul routes. The corona pandemic led to a sudden consolidation. Even before this began, Eurowings Europe largely withdrew; during the pandemic, the Easyjet routes to/from Vienna were finally discontinued, Level Europe filed for bankruptcy, Wizz Air and Ryanair were initially cut.

Austrian Airlines has a government-guaranteed loan, which has since been repaid, was used. Furthermore, you received from the state 150 million euros in compensation received as a gift. Laudamotion GmbH also received Corona aid from the state. The federal government's transparency database shows that 2021 euros were transferred in 520.000, 2022 euros in 400.000 and 2023 euros in 10.659.876,73. This involves support such as fixed cost subsidies, lockdown bonuses and so on, which every entrepreneur could apply for. However, according to the database maintained by the Ministry of Finance, no money is said to have been paid out to Eurowings Europe GmbH, Easyjet Europe Airline GmbH, the bankrupt estate of Level Europe GmbH and/or the branch of Wizz Air Hungary Kft. It is unknown whether the companies mentioned have even submitted applications to the responsible authorities (e.g. Cofag, Chamber of Commerce, etc.).

Crisis KV after short-time work

Laudamotion GmbH has after a real soap opera around the social partner agreement necessary for short-time work ended again after just a few days. This step was taken because the union did not fulfill an ultimatum. What was not publicly known at the time was that he had already been there for a long time Maltese successor Lauda Europe Ltd. under construction. Just a few weeks later, “the cat was let out of the bag” and at the end of 2020 Laudamotion GmbH even returned its AOC and its operating license. The “new Laudmotion-KV”, the negotiated amid demonstrations became, never came into force.

Things went differently at Austrian Airlines. The carrier kept its staff on short-time work for a comparatively long time. This had a financial impact on the employees, as they received less money during this measure than they would for normal full-time work. In addition, an agreement was reached through the Chamber of Commerce on a so-called crisis KV, which will be implemented after short-time work has ended reduced wages and salaries. At that time, the trade unionists also assumed that it would take many years until the AUA could get back into the black. Things then went much faster, but the “crisis salaries” continued to weigh on the staff for a longer period of time.

In this regard, it should also be noted that only the basic salary excluding flight hour allowances and other allowances was taken into account in the short-time work. This meant that young flight attendants in particular received and had very little money small part-time jobs out of necessity, often in the catering industry. They then repeatedly lost these because of the completely unnecessary lockdowns. Wizz Air flight attendants were in an even worse situation because they were on short-time work due to a lack of work Only the basic salary was paid and that wasn't enough for many of them. Some have reoriented themselves in other industries, which is why the carrier then had an acute shortage of flight attendants. The Lauda employees have that minimum salary provided for in the works agreement, which is not particularly high either. In any case, there was significantly more money than the competitor.

AUA employees are not “top earners”

There is always a misconception that Austrian Airlines pays flight attendants and pilots the highest wages that can be earned in aviation in Austria. That is simply not true. For example, young professionals (flight attendants) earn less in the first few years at AUA than at Lauda Europe and Wizz Air. Even at Eurowings Europe's “Phantom Base” in Vienna, the starting salary is higher than at Austrian Airlines. After a few years of service and the associated promotion to higher levels in the pay tables, you will earn significantly better as a flight attendant at Austrian Airlines than at the low-cost competition. To put it simply: young professionals can earn more at the beginning with the competition, but in the long term they can earn more with Austrian Airlines. This also means that loyalty to the employer is reflected in the wallet.

The price increases in recent years are The AUA flying personnel also left their mark. Everything became more expensive and tickets from Austrian Airlines in particular became exorbitantly more expensive, with a simultaneous significant reduction in the included services. The pilots and flight attendants also know this, but their salaries were only increased minimally after the crisis pay was abolished. Only recently did management boast that they wanted to make a big profit. From this point of view alone, it is quite understandable that the staff also want to get something out of the expensive ticket prices.

Eight days of negotiations with no result

The Chamber of Commerce (representing Austrian Airlines) and the ÖGB branch union Vida (representing the staff) have been negotiating a new collective wage for several months. The employee side wants to have higher salaries for the flying staff, but the other side of the table is not really open to this. There have been eight rounds of negotiations so far, but no agreement has been reached.

“This year we are aiming to adjust the income of flying staff to the level of comparable airlines in order to correct the existing underpayment,” says Daniel Liebhart, chairman of the Vida aviation department. “After a very good economic year for the entire aviation industry and a significant increase in ticket prices, employees should now also benefit,” Liebhart also adds that some airlines have already announced further significant increases in ticket prices of up to 10 percent.”

The KV negotiations will be challenging this year because they are moving “between the opposite poles of profit maximization and income increase”. “It is only fair if the proceeds from the price increases are not only used to maximize profits, but also manifest themselves in good salary increases. We are confident that we will find a solution that does not stand in the way of the flourishing development of aviation,” the Vida trade unionist continued.

Employee representatives want to continue negotiating

Works meetings will take place on Friday, March 1, 2024. These were called in by the union and works council with a comparatively long lead time. During this, the AUA flying staff should be informed about the current status of negotiations regarding the new KV. They also want to discuss possible further steps with the workforce.

There is still no official talk of a strike. On the contrary, Daniel Liebhart emphasizes: “We are relying on a constructive negotiation process. “It is up to the AUA board and the Austrian Economic Chamber to put together a sensible package for the future together with the union.” However, AUA employees are secretly saying that it is expected that someone could bring up the “S-word” during the meetings. It cannot be completely ruled out that if the situation continues, employee representatives could – at least suggest – take tougher industrial action.

Austrian Airlines has for March 1, 2024 A total of 112 flights were canceled as a precautionary measure. It cannot be ruled out that there could be subsequent cuts. Passengers must also expect that there could be delays throughout Friday even after the company meetings have ended due to machine rotation.