A lot has happened in recent weeks. The collective labor agreement negotiations do not yet want to go smoothly. That is why KLM recently decided to no longer conduct the discussions about wages and duration of the new collective labor agreement with all domains at the same time (multi-link), but now per domain. The half-year figures were also announced last week. These are still ‘challenging’.
But fortunately there is also good news. At the end of last week, the ground unions and KLM reached an agreement on new mobility agreements for the reorganization Back on Track. This will hopefully provide definitive clarity for all employees affected by this reorganization soon. In this info we want to inform you further about these topics.
Mobility agreements ‘Back on Track’
It took a while, but it worked. KLM has reached an agreement with all ground unions on how to deal with the personnel consequences of Back on Track.
The main features of the agreement are:
- No forced redundancies
- Possibilities for voluntary departure (VVR), even after redundancy has been established. This scheme is based on a compensation of 2.5x the statutory transition payment.
- Mediation to other suitable work within KLM. Temporary work is also possible, but limited in time.
- Other (temporary) work can also be sought externally on a voluntary basis. And if this is successful and you find another job outside KLM, you will still be entitled to a partial termination payment based on the VVR.
- In case of doubt, you can ask a joint appeals committee for an opinion.
You can read the summary of the BoT and VVR mobility agreements here .
What does De Unie think?
Of course we are satisfied with this result. It is not for nothing that we speak of an agreement in principle. The most important of all agreements is that our demand (because that’s what we can call it) of no forced redundancies has been met. For De Unie this was non-negotiable. After all, this reorganization is mainly motivated by cost-cutting considerations and only affects the ground employees. In addition, the amount of the compensation is considerably better than previous voluntary severance schemes. And that seems more than justified to us!
Now an agreement in principle is only a final agreement when our members have also spoken out. As soon as the texts are final, we will start a consultation on this.
The collective labor agreement
We are much less positive about the lack of a new collective labor agreement. Although we have previously made quite a bit of progress in the discussions on the domain-specific topics, it seems that it is not possible to reach agreement on wages and the duration of the new collective labor agreement. And that is frustrating. So frustrating that there is still a real chance that actions will be taken in September. We understand that sometimes taking action is unavoidable, but we remain concerned about the consequences. KLM itself is also responsible for this.
KLM recently indicated that it wants to invite the unions again for a meeting. A conversation in which we want to agree on salary and duration per domain. It should now be clear to KLM that a zero line and the earlier proposal are not enough. Let’s reopen the conversation about how we can make agreements for ground employees about a new collective labor agreement with (at least) maintaining purchasing power. If it is possible to reach an agreement with each other on the BoT mobility agreements, then surely it should also be possible to reach a new collective labor agreement? And please as soon as possible, because the previous collective labor agreement expired (too) long ago….
Half-year results
It will not have escaped your notice that KLM’s half-year figures were announced last week. Although AFKLM’s improved result offers perspective, KLM’s own results remain ‘challenging’. And that is not entirely unexpected.
Although KLM flew 3% more and generated 6% more revenue, no profit was made up to and including the second quarter. This is despite the better-than-expected fuel costs and the fact that the savings from the BoT program have so far been higher than projected. The consequences of the NATO summit, higher airport charges at Schiphol (more than 40%), the situation in the Middle East and the restrictions in the availability of the fleet and pilots have a significant negative impact on the result. And this remains a challenge for KLM. Especially in light of the ambitious – and necessary – investments in the new fleet.
In the press, both the CEO and the CFO have mainly commented on the high costs for KLM, and in particular the wage costs in relation to a new collective labor agreement. We were very annoyed by that. After all, it creates an image as if wage costs are the main problem, and that does not seem to be the case to us. Without the aforementioned challenges, KLM’s result would have looked much better and no one would have talked about ‘high wage costs’. Ground staff work hard and earn a good and competitive salary. They are also not responsible for many of KLM’s challenges, but they are confronted with them. A ‘slightly’ more nuanced reporting from KLM’s management would therefore have been better…..
So much for this info. If you have any questions or comments, please send a message to huug.brinkers@unie.nl. We will keep you informed of all further developments.
Sincerely,
also on behalf of the delegation members,
Huug Brinkers
Advocate
