German government pushes back on Lufthansa plan for manager bonuses

Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s plans to retroactively pay out manager bonuses contravene agreements made with the government as part of the airline’s rescue package, according to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s chief spokesman.

The state stepped in during 2020 to rescue Lufthansa after pandemic-related restrictions all but grounded air travel. While the airline repaid its 9 billion-euro ($9.6 billion) bailout ahead of schedule — and the government offloaded the stake it took in Lufthansa at a profit — the terms of the package prohibit bundling bonus payments from earlier years and paying them out at a later date, Scholz spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said Wednesday.

“We need to discuss these two different interpretations of the law with Lufthansa and see what comes out of that,” Hebestreit said. “There are agreements that were made and from our point of view what Lufthansa has planned is not in line with those.”

Lufthansa didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

German labor unions VC and UFO, which represent pilots and flight attendants, said on Wednesday that they were “surprised” by reports that Lufthansa executive board members will receive millions in bonus payments for 2021 and 2022.

Lufthansa management doesn’t seem to realize the “signal effect” of such bonuses, the unions said in a statement, calling instead for special payments to be made to all staff.