Discover Airlines and the trade union Verdi have agreed on collective labor agreements for the almost 500 cockpit and 1,400 cabin employees. The collective labor agreements apply from July 1, 2024, and are valid until December 31, 2027. This is the first collective labor agreement for the young airline, which commenced flight operations in summer 2021.
Bernd Bauer, CEO of Discover Airlines:
“The agreement is good news for our employees and our guests and marks an important milestone in the history of our young airline as the first collective labor agreement. In intensive, sometimes very controversial, but ultimately constructive negotiations, we were able to agree on a robust collective labor agreement for our employees. However, we must not ignore the fact that this agreement also entails significant cost burdens and restrictions on our planning flexibility. We have reached the limits of our economic ability here. However, the fact that we unite both groups of employees in one collective agreement with Verdi also gave us slightly more room for maneuver financially, because we avoid complexity in the system. It is important that we now focus fully on the further development and positioning of our airline in the leisure market segment together with our employees.”
Key points of the collective labor agreements
- Flat increase of current salary levels for all cabin employees from July 1, 2024
- Additional leaps within current salary system for cockpit employees
- Additional annual salary increase of 5 percent for all cabin and cockpit employees from May, 2025
- Introduction of annual special payments
- More predictable free time and duty roster stability, including a continuous increase in days off over the agreed term
- Agreement on joint conflict resolution through mechanisms such as mediation and arbitration
Payments that have already been agreed upon with the works council in the past will continue to remain in place in the future. This includes a performance-based variable compensation (profit-sharing) for all Discover Airlines employees.
