On the night from midnight to Thursday, the Chamber of Commerce and the Vida union agreed on a new collective agreement for Lauda. At first it was unclear whether the company would accept it. In the evening there was the green light from managing director Andreas Gruber.

After initial amazement at a formulation in the formal Lauda collective agreement, things soon calmed down. The management of the airline Lauda gave written consent to the social partners to accept and acknowledge the collective agreement agreed between Vida and WKO the previous night. In an interview with Puls24-TV, trade unionist Roman Hebenstreit pointed out that yesterday's deal is legally binding and that the social partners will now quickly settle the usual formalities.

While considerable pressure was initially exerted in the morning and, if the deadline was not signed, threatened to close the base again, David O'Brien and Andreas Gruber took this pressure back, according to the social partners. The formal document has not yet been signed by WKO and Vida, but this should be done quickly. The Chamber of Commerce will send this signed to the union, who will then sign it, and the formal details that are the responsibility of the social partners are then dealt with.

The airline assumes that the employees will give their approval over the weekend and that the Vienna base will be retained. The "deadline" that if the formal document is not signed in the course of Thursday the base will be closed despite a KV degree has been withdrawn. The contract that WKO and Vida concluded in the morning hours already represents the legally binding collective agreement and this is legally binding for the airline Lauda. The management confirms to the social partners in writing that this has been accepted and that they are committed to the new KV. The last small formalities should still be dealt with together and if the employees also vote for it on the weekend, the base should remain open and the takeover of the routes is finally canceled.

Social partners reached agreement overnight

“You can see that the successful Austrian model of social partnership has proven itself again. It is gratifying that the social partners have taken the necessary steps towards one another and that an agreement has been reached. Our intensive discussions over the past few days have literally paid off. This is an important step for hundreds of employees and the Vienna location. Now it is up to Ryanair, as the parent company of Laudamotion, to recognize this and to reverse the closure of the Laudamotion, ”said State Secretary Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) in a first reaction in the morning.

“After lengthy and difficult negotiations and repeated attempts by the WKÖ to find a compromise, a solution for the airline's collective agreement was reached on Wednesday night. We were able to reach an agreement based on social partnership, for which Laudamotion has made significant improvements, ”says Manfred Handerek, Managing Director of the Aviation Professional Group in the Chamber of Commerce. “The high level of commitment over the past few days has paid off. Now it would be important for the company to implement this collective agreement so that the Vienna base and thus also the employees have a perspective again ”.

“At 1.440 euros 14 times a year, the monthly guaranteed gross income for flight attendants increases by 44 percent compared to the initial offer (1.000 euros gross). For co-pilots, an increase of 1.700 percent to a monthly guaranteed gross income of 18 euros was achieved compared to the initial offer (2.000 euros gross). Vida’s demand to completely delete all illegal commercial contract clauses proposed by Laudamotion and Ryanair was also approved by the Chamber of Commerce. The crisis KV was concluded between the social partners by 2023, ”is how the Vida union describes the key points of the agreement.