Airline KLM has retroactively increased the wages for its staff from 1 March this year. The company made the announcement in a brief statement on Monday. Employees with permanent and temporary contracts will benefit by 5 percent. KLM says it will implement the wage increase that was previously postponed due to the corona pandemic due to “rising energy prices and inflation, as well as the shortage on the labor market”.
In August 2020 and August 2021, KLM postponed the wage increases of 2.5 percent each agreed in its collective labor agreement due to the impact of the corona crisis on the aviation sector. At the time, those decisions were taken without the consent of the unions. KLM then said it could not afford the wage increase because of millions of dollars in losses.
Billion Dollar Support
The national airline received 3.4 billion euros from the cabinet during the corona crisis in the form of loans and guarantees on loans from banks, of which 1 billion euros was direct state aid. In exchange for the support, the company must meet a number of conditions set by the government, which is a shareholder in parent company Air-France-KLM. One of these is cutting costs by 15 percent. The consequences of the corona crisis were cited by KLM as a reason to ask staff to hand in part of their wages.
KLM has so far repaid 311 million euros, about a third of the direct government support. In addition to a hefty interest on the support, KLM employees also have to make a wage sacrifice. Although salaries are now rising, this does not yet apply to the holiday pay or the year-end bonus that employees had to partially surrender.
Also read this article from 2020: Pressure on KLM pilots grows to accept wage sacrifice
“We can’t do more now,” Kim Bruggeman, head of labor relations and employment conditions, told ANP news agency. Bruggeman prefers to speak of “a correction” than of “an increase”, since KLM employees have had to hand in wages, the higher incomes of up to 20 percent. Now that the company has made operating profit for three consecutive quarters, there is again room to pay the increases.
Round the table with the trade unions
Furthermore, the airline now states that it wants to meet with the trade unions about “the contribution of the employees to the recovery of KLM”. This will happen during the new collective labor agreement negotiations. “Everyone will have to contribute to the conditions of the government,” a spokesperson said.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 18, 2022