Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 27, 2026
1 min readLast updated: March 27, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleGermany’s Verdi union has secured a wage agreement with Lufthansa covering 20,000 ground staff, providing a total basic pay raise of 4.65% in two tranches from January 1, 2026, and March 1, 2027.
BERLIN, March 27 (Reuters) - Lufthansa Group has reached a collective bargaining agreement for more than 20,000 ground staff in Germany, winning some breathing room as labour disputes with other unions continue.
According to the deal, reached after four rounds of talks, the basic salary for ground staff will be raised by a total of 4.65% in two steps, said trade union Verdi.
Lufthansa said that an initial 2.2% raise was agreed retroactively at air freight as well as maintenance and repair units from January 1 this year. For staff at passenger business Deutsche Lufthansa AG, that will be one year later because of a "challenging business environment".
There will be a further 2.4% raise from March 1, 2027, across businesses.
The airline remains in protracted disputes over benefits with pilots and flight attendants, who have gone on strike.
(Reporting by Klaus Lauer, writing by Miranda Murray and Ludwig Burger, editing by Thomas Seythal)
Germany's Verdi union negotiated the collective bargaining agreement with Lufthansa.
More than 20,000 Lufthansa ground staff are covered by the new wage deal.
The basic salary will be raised by a total of 4.65% in two steps.
A 2.2% raise is effective retroactively from January 1, 2024, or January 2027 depending on business unit, with a further 2.4% raise from March 1, 2027.
The agreement was reached after four rounds of negotiations.
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