Air France-KLM, the struggling Franco-Dutch airline group, warned on Thursday it was overstaffed but said it was still seeking ways to avoid forced departures as part of its turnaround plans.

"/> Air France-KLM, the struggling Franco-Dutch airline group, warned on Thursday it was overstaffed but said it was still seeking ways to avoid forced departures as part of its turnaround plans.

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Air France-KLM admits overstaffing problems

Air France-KLM, the struggling Franco-Dutch airline group, warned on Thursday it was overstaffed but said it was still seeking ways to avoid forced departures as part of its turnaround plans.

Published: 25 May 2012 06:06 CEST

Air France-KLM admits overstaffing problems

It was the first time Air France-KLM, which employs 53,000 people, publicly referred to an excess of staff.

In a progress report on a three-year turnaround strategy announced in January, the company also said 34 planes would be cut from its short- and medium-haul Air France fleet of 250 aircraft by 2014.

Chief executive Alexandre de Juniac explained that most of the planes were leased and would be returned.

The fleet for Air France-KLM’s low-cost unit Transavia, which operates flights to destinations in Europe and the Mediterranean, would however triple in size from eight to to 22 planes by 2016, the company said.

Newspaper reports on Monday said Air France-KLM was looking to cut 5,000 jobs over three years, about half through voluntary payoffs.

According to French daily Le Figaro, management is counting on 800 people leaving the company through normal attrition, but will also open a voluntary buyout offer for all personnel, including pilots.

French news site LaTribune.fr said the buyout offer would affect 2,500 to 3,000 jobs.

The cost-cutting plan, including wage freezes and investment reductions, aims at saving at least two billion euros ($2.6 billion), reducing debt and increasing productivity by 20 percent.

Air France-KLM aims to reduce its net debt by two billion euros to about 4.5 billion euros by the end of 2014.

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German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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