KLM pilots will not stop work on Monday morning for a better collective labor agreement. That reports pilot union VNV Monday. VNV had previously announced the strike, but KLM and VNV have reached an outline agreement on a new collective labor agreement for pilots. The announced strike, which has now been canceled, would start at 11 a.m. and last one hour. This is expected to have affected about fifteen departing flights.
KLM and VNV will further develop the outline agreement. The agreement includes agreements on pay increases for pilots. An average wage increase of 5.5 percent per year has been agreed over the term of two years, which will take effect retroactively on September 1 this year. Under the new agreements, pilots will also receive a one-off payment of 2 percent to compensate for the late commencement date of the collective labor agreement, which was actually supposed to come into effect in March this year.
The agreement is not yet final. “The members still have to vote,” emphasizes a VNV spokesperson. “We are presenting the members with an agreement that the VNV is positive about.” KLM writes that it is pleased “to have achieved this result through constructive consultation.”