The works council and the Vida trade union are holding works meetings at Austrian Airlines on March 7, 2023. Impairments in air traffic are therefore to be expected. Cancellations and delays cannot be ruled out. Background: According to employee representatives, the AUA board broke off the social partner negotiations.

There has been a tense atmosphere between the works council or trade union and the general management of the airline for some time now. The austerity package that was concluded in the course of the corona pandemic is scheduled to expire this year, but despite the recent inflation, AUA is not considering adjusting wages and salaries. The negotiating situation is now so deadlocked that, according to Vida, the board of Austrian Airlines has left the table. There is talk of a unilateral termination of the talks.

In a media release, the employee representatives raise serious allegations. However, the AUA employees will not be fobbed off cheaply, inflation is still at a record level. We will discuss how to proceed together with the employees on March 7th at a works meeting at Vienna Airport from 9 a.m.," says Daniel Liebhart, Chairman of the Vida Aviation Department.

The union's position is that the austerity package approved by workers' representatives was intended to fund the state-backed loan. However, due to the high income, AUA was able to make the early repayment via the regular cash flow and a credit line provided by the parent company Lufthansa. Liebhart: "That means nothing other than that the loan could be repaid early from one's own financial resources, which is basically a good thing, and as a result of which the personnel savings package has lost its justification".

The talks that ended should also be about making the flight attendant profession financially more attractive. But that promise has been withdrawn in recent weeks. The board of directors broke off the negotiations this week without having put an offer on the table. At the same time, the employees were informed by the board of directors about the termination and they were given the prospect of a voluntary, non-binding and revocable salary increase, criticizes Liebhart.

“With this hypocritical approach, the board of directors is trying to justify the fact that bonus payments should now flow strongly again on the management level – as the board itself communicated in an employee information letter yesterday. The bizarre thing is that these payments are based on the previous year's business. At that time, however, the employees were still on short-time work and had to forego a considerable part of their income in order to save the AUA. However, it has now turned out that these savings measures have contributed to the managers receiving their bonus early and the Management Board is not even willing to continue negotiations with us on an equal footing," says Liebhart, outraged. “We immediately call on the AUA management to negotiate with us on an equal footing and show the employees the appreciation they deserve. After all, they are the ones who put the company on the road to success. If the management level should now receive their performance-related remuneration again, then the employees have earned at least as much further compensation for their great commitment to the company".