Vueling and the cabin crew have sealed peace after months of negotiations with an agreement for the new collective agreement for this group of workers. The cabin crew had staged a three-month strike, from November 2022 to January 31 of this year, to demand salary improvements with conditions that the company described as “unaffordable” at the time.
The agreement ensures a consolidated and unconsolidated salary increase for 2022 and 2023 and includes an increase scheme linked to the company's results and the increase in the CPI for the coming years until 2025, the IAG airline reported.
It also includes different aspects regarding hiring, work regime, breaks and vacations, productivity measures, improvements in conciliation and working conditions and social benefits, among other measures.
The airline emphasizes that the pact allows for continuity of the company's business model "in the medium and long term and to face future challenges and opportunities." For the year 2022, a consolidated salary increase of 4.5% is established, an annual non-consolidated payment of 0.8% of the total annual salary for 2022, and an improvement in working conditions with a value equivalent to 1.2% of the wage bill.
For 2023, a consolidated increase of 3% has been agreed, potentially reaching 4%, in addition to a non-consolidated payment of up to 1.5%. This agreement also contemplates the consolidated 6.5% that already occurred in 2021. For subsequent years and until 2025, a scheme of consolidated and unconsolidated increases linked to the company's results and the increase in the CPI is established.
The lack of a labor agreement with the workforce has been holding back IAG's investments in Vueling during these months. The pact with cabin crew is a first step to unlock this growth that other airlines in the group, such as Iberia, have had. Vueling will now begin conversations with the pilot group about working conditions.
The company returned to profits in the last financial year, with 187 million euros. In total, Vueling transported close to 32 million passengers in 2022, only 7.6% less than three years earlier. This is the largest recovery in terms of passengers among all the airlines in the IAG group.
