A German court has ruled a strike by Lufthansa pilots that led to the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights this week was “evidently unlawful”.
The ruling, which came too late to stop Wednesday’s action, is the latest step in a bitter row over cost cuts and pay at the airline.
The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union, which represents around 5,000 pilots, said the decision means all striking pilots must return to work “immediately”.
The court said the strike was “clearly motivated” not only by the official reason stated i.e. pilots’ transitional retirement provisions, but also by the Wings Concept of the Lufthansa Group.
The action is over Lufthansa’s plans to phase out its early retirement scheme that currently sees pilots retire at 55 and retain around 60 per cent of their pay until they reach the state pension age.
The VC union started its series of 13 strikes around 18 months ago. Initially the aim was to prevent changes to early retirement benefits but in recent months the pilots have also sought to prevent low-cost expansion at Lufthansa.