New Delhi: German mega carrier Lufthansa has laid off 103 India-based cabin crew almost a year after its flights to and from here were restricted due to the pandemic.
In pre-pandemic times, it used to have 56 weekly flights between its German hubs of Frankfurt and Munich and four Indian metros — a number that is now down to 10.
Lufthansa had about 140 cabin crew based in India to be rostered on these flights. Some of the laid off employees are planning a protest at Delhi Airport’s Aerocity on Friday.
A Lufthansa spokesperson said the airline “regrets to confirm that it will not be extending the fixed-term employment contracts of its Delhi-based flight attendants. The severe financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic leaves Lufthansa no choice but to restructure the airline. This includes personnel-related measures in Germany and Europe as well as in key international markets like India.”
“We exhausted every possible option and had even already reached an agreement with the Indian union we were in close consultation at all times. It would have avoided compulsory redundancies for our cabin staff. We had signed an agreement with the Indian union providing for two years of unpaid leave, with Lufthansa continuing to provide the local health insurance – even for enrolled family members."
"Lufthansa was also willing to absorb all associated premiums during this period. Unfortunately, consent to the agreement was revoked by the union on December 31. Indian cabin crew with unlimited contracts are not affected as Lufthansa was able to reach individual agreements with the these flight attendants. Not being able to reach an agreement for cabin crew with fixed-term employment contracts forces us to take this step as part of an inevitable restructuring of Lufthansa Group. It should be noted that this restructuring is not limited to India but affects all our worldwide markets and to a great extent includes our home markets, especially Germany. However, there we were able to reach initial agreements with unions to help weather the crisis,” the Lufthansa spokesperson said.
After India suspended scheduled international flights last March, airlines — both India and foreign — are allowed to operate on air bubble routes. Indian carriers operate Vande Bharat Mission flights.
“Lufthansa has terminated the services of its 103 Indian flight attendants on fixed term contracts based in Delhi overnight citing Covid Pandemic as the reason. No such terminations have happened in Germany or worldwide till date. Lufthansa was granted state aid by the German Government in June 2020. These terminations happened overnight without giving any prior notice. Some of these terminated people had been employed for nearly 15 years,” said one of the affected employees.
Airlines globally have been hit hard by Covid restrictions on travel and many of them are struggling to survive by taking all possible cost-cutting measures.
India had formed an air bubble with Germany last July. In the initial days of this arrangement, Lufthansa was operating 20 flights a week while Indian carriers were having 3-4 flights a week to Germany. India had objected to this disparity in numbers.
As a result of this disagreement over the disparity, Lufthansa had cancelled all its planned India flights between September 30 and October 20, 2020.
After this Germany had withdrawn permission for AI to operate flights to Frankfurt in the first half of October, 2020.
Later an agreement was reached in October between India and Germany under which Lufthansa was to operate 10 weekly flights to India and Air India seven flights to Germany.
12/02/21 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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