The German Vereinte Dienstleiswerkschaft (ver.di) union is calling on aviation security workers who work in passenger screening, personnel and goods screening and in service areas to go on a 48 hour strike on Thursday, 20 April, and Friday, 21 April. The strike, taking place at Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Cologne/Bonn airports, will begin Wednesday night and end Friday night.
Longer waiting times, delays and cancellations are expected. Hamburg Airport has announced that, from Wednesday 10 pm to Friday 11 pm no regular departures are possible, while flight cancellations and delays are also to be expected on arrival.
Ver.di has been in negotiations with the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS) for years to increase the supplement for night, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday work, as well as a better collective bargaining agreement for overtime pay for security and service staff at commercial airports.
Work at airports must become more attractive in order to be able to retain aviation security specialists and recruit new ones in order to avoid longer waiting times for holidaymakers.
Wolfgang Pieper, ver.di
Despite several strikes this year, talks with the BDLS with the aim of jointly finding a solution to the conflict have not yet yielded a breakthrough. A written offer from the BDLS is insufficient and not capable of agreement, ver.di stressed, since it does not bring any improvements for work on Saturdays and Sundays or for night work after 8pm, only accounting hours after 10pm. The continuation of negotiations on 11 and 12 April did not lead to a solution and the employers did not submit an improved offer.
“The ver.di collective bargaining committee took the negotiation date after Easter as a signal from the employers to finally come to a solution and to take travel traffic into account during the Easter holidays and to refrain from strikes. But the hope of finally reaching an agreement was in vain”, said ver.di’s Wolfgang Pieper. “As in the past, the BDLS continues to play for time in order to declare it impossible for the new collective bargaining regulations to come into force early in the first half of the year. We call on the BDLS to finally present a considerable offer in the negotiations on April 27th and 28th in order to avoid further strikes and to end the conflict before Pentecost.”
Background
Supplement payments have not been improved since 2006, with negotiations for an increase starting in 2013. Most recently, in early 2019, it was agreed to continue negotiations on this. In 2020, the pandemic halted any progress, negotiations being resumed in 2022, however six rounds of meetings throughout the year were inconclusive.
The workers are asking for:
- 30% supplement for overtime, from the 1st hour that exceeds the individual monthly working hours;
- 50% supplement for Sunday work, which is also paid for work on Monday from midnight to 4 am if the work has already started on Sunday;
- 25% supplement for Saturday work;
- 125% supplement for work on public holidays, which is also paid for work after a public holiday from midnight to 4 am if the work started on Friday;
- 125% supplement for work on Easter, Whit Sunday and 31 December after 2pm;
- 150% supplement for work on 1 May, 24 December after 2pm, 25 December and 26 December;
- 25% supplement for night work from 8 pm to 6 am and 40%from midnight to 4 am if the work started before midnight;
- If several bonuses coincide (work on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays), the highest bonus should always be paid;
- Night supplements are to be granted in addition to the other bonuses.
