Salary increase agreement at Air France

Barely a month he is in post. But Friday already, the CEO of Air France-KLM, Ben Smith, had concluded with the French unions a wage agreement that, until very recently, seemed out of reach.

All Air France personnel are up 2% retroactive in 2018. In 2019, employees will again receive 2%. This total increase of 4% is comparable to that of the staff of its sister company KLM.

This is an important first success for the Canadian Smith, himself closely involved in the negotiations. His predecessor, Jean-Marc Janaillac, resigned after staff rejected a last slightly less attractive offer (3.65% over the same period) in a May referendum. Air France General Manager Franck Terner and the much-loved Personnel Director Gilles Gateau also had to leave the field.

But the unions do not want to make Smith too difficult on his honeymoon. With the agreement, after only two days of negotiations, they express their confidence. They left their initial requirement of 5.1% more in salary. This spring, a large part of the staff worked a fortnight to reinforce this requirement. This strike cost Air France about 335 million euros, as indicated by the half – yearly figures for the month of August.

The unions then declared that the strike was mainly a reflection of the poor relations between staff and management. "Everyone is in agreement with the KLM pilots' advance of 4%," said Vice President Yannick Floc's hr of the SNPL-AF pilots union in May against of the NRC . He denounced the apparent lack of social dialogue.

The former CEO, Janaillac, however, wanted to go further. He hoped to fix the French federations on a multi-year agreement. Such is the weakness of the agreement reached by Smith: in October 2019, the company must again be with the unions around the table. In doing so, negotiations between the CAO and KLM will be closely followed. They took place a few months earlier, in June.

The lack of signature of the largest pilot union, the SNPL of Floc & # 39; h and his unfortunate foreman Philippe Evain, is another problem. The pilots have additional requirements and want to stay in negotiation with the company. If Smith wants to work on the growth of Transavia, a price fighter, and wants to set up a cheaper company in the long run, he will still have to go around the tables with the drivers: their approval is necessary for any radical expansion. or any change of course.

According to the economic newspaper The Tribune some unions also seem convinced that it will also be possible to discuss the current year in October 2019. But the unions that signed Friday represent more than 76% of Air France's workforce. This is enough to validate the agreement.

Smith praised the "quality of the discussion" with the unions in a press release. The Air France-KLM action closed Friday in Paris with a loss of 3%.