Lufthansa seeks fresh talks with unions on retirement - Spiegel
BERLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa is planning further talks with union representatives to try to resolve the two-year dispute over retirement issues that continued this month with a week-long walkout by workers, Der Spiegel reported on Wednesday.
The German airline's Chief Executive Carsten Spohr wants to discuss questions on retirement with officials from cabin crew union Ufo, service-sector union Ver.di and pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit and keep the talks separate from all other sticking points, the magazine said on Thursday, without citing sources.
Spohr will comment on the matter at an internal employee event on Thursday, a Lufthansa spokesman said, declining to elaborate.
Lufthansa has held negotiations with various staff groups as it tries to reduce costs. Despite announcing at the end of October that it expected record profits in 2015, Spohr said the airline must cut costs now if it is to deal with increased competition from the likes of Ryanair and easyJet .
A major obstacle in the dispute over retirement benefits is that Lufthansa wants to introduce a cheaper early retirement and pension scheme for new employees rather than a single agreement for both current and future staff.
Separately, German investor rights group DSW is pondering taking legal action to have a court decide how far unions are entitled to take their protests, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday.
The Nov. 6 to 13 strike action by Ufo forced the cancellation of about 4,700 Lufthansa flights and disrupted the travel plans of more than half a million passengers.
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Additional reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by David Goodman)
