Alitalia Staff To Vote On Union Deal

Alitalia and its unions have reached agreement in mediated talks that, if approved, should allow the airline’s owners to invest more money in the struggling flag carrier.

The tentative agreement reached in the early hours of Friday morning will limit the total number of job losses to 1,700, down from over 2,000 required by Alitalia’s business plan.

Wage cuts that Alitalia was seeking will now be limited to 8 percent, instead of a 30 percent drop. The tentative deal will go to Alitalia staff next week for a vote.

Alitalia’s board had previously approved a business plan to cut staff numbers by about two thousand and reduce costs by EUR€1 billion (USD$1.06 billion) by 2019.

Alitalia has been losing over a million euros a day as competition from low cost carriers in Europe and over-staffing affected its business. The airline negotiated a €500 million rescue package in 2013, and received a further boost in 2014 when Etihad agreed to take a 49 percent stake in the ailing carrier.