Lufthansa is to introduce short-time working for cabin and ground staff at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs due to the coronavirus crisis.
However, an agreement with German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit has not yet been reached.
The extent of reduced working hours is determined for employees depending on the loss of work and can be up to 100%, the airline said.
The agreements apply to at least 27,000 of the airline’s 35,000 employees and comes as the airline grounds the majority of its fleet.
For some of the employees, reduced working hours began retrospectively in March.
Chief human resources and legal affairs officer Michael Niggemann said: “With short-time working, we want to secure jobs of our employees in these difficult and unusual times.
“Our goal remains trying to avoid redundancies. The agreement of short-time work is an essential prerequisite for this.
“We will have to constantly review the economic parameters.”
Lufthansa is increasing the short-time working allowance up to 90% of the net salary lost through short-time working.
How long Lufthansa can pay these top-up amounts depends largely on the duration of the crisis, the airline added.
A voluntary waiver of pay at differing levels for senior management will apply from April 1 for at least six months until the end of September.