Source: Iberia
- If the agreement is ratified, Iberia’s cabin crew members will receive additional consolidated and non-consolidated salary increases, linked to profitability, punctuality, NPS, and productivity objectives, a compensation model comparable to that of the pilots.
- The negotiation has also agreed on significant improvements for the cabin crew members: an additional bonus in 2025, salary increase for the entry level (guaranteeing the monthly minimum wage), staggered increases for levels 11, 10, 9, and 8, creation of an incident bonus, maintenance of the current Special Leave with more quota, recovery of the Loreto from 2021, payment of diet if the new start time of the pairing is delayed to the next day, two days of WB diet if a crew member is missing on the outbound and return flights to a long-haul destination, and transformation of all fixed discontinuous TCP contracts to ordinary fixed contracts.
- The agreement implies a three-year extension of the current XVIII Collective Agreement, which will be in force until December 31, 2028.
- Iberia’s management is willing to start negotiations with the representatives of the ground workers, with the aim of reaching an agreement similar to the one reached with the pilots and pre-agreed with the cabin crew members.
Iberia, UGT, the Independent Union of Cabin Crew Members of Airline Lines (SITCPLA), Candidatura Independiente de TCP (CITCP), and CC.OO. have reached a preliminary agreement today to improve the XVIII Collective Agreement of Cabin Crew Members and extend it until December 31, 2028. This preliminary agreement will now be submitted to the assemblies of the different unions for voting.
The preliminary agreement serves to implement a model that will allow Iberia to better share its profits with the cabin crew members, as it already does with the pilots. This formula will allow the cabin crew members to receive additional consolidated and non-consolidated salary increases, based not only on economic results but also when objectives related to operational excellence are achieved: punctuality, NPS, and productivity.
Main improvements agreed for the cabin crew members
In addition to the new system for receiving additional income, the negotiation has allowed other significant improvements for the cabin crew members, addressing the main concerns of the group.
1. Additional salary increase to the current one. Increase of up to 1% consolidated and up to 2.65% non-consolidated, depending on the airline’s profitability and operational excellence. The increases would be applied to the salary tables that already contemplated a 2.5% consolidated increase and a 1.85% non-consolidated increase for achieving the Iberia Group’s EBIT objectives in 2024.
2. Extraordinary one-time payment and non-consolidable equivalent to an extra payment, in 2025. The amount will be equivalent to the Christmas and summer extra payment.
3. Salary increase for entry levels. The preliminary agreement includes a specific compensation improvement for levels 12, 11, 10, 9, and 8 through an increase in the guaranteed travel allowance, ensuring that the monthly payroll is always above the minimum wage. In exceptional cases, the month’s minimum wage will be guaranteed through monthly regularization. The annual increases will be:
- Level 12: 2,700 euros
- Level 11: 2,040 euros
- Level 10: 1,750 euros
- Level 9: 1,420 euros
- Level 8: 700 euros
Additionally, the key compensation for operational circumstances for calculating the minimum wage according to the agreement is eliminated.
4. New incident bonus. Responds to a historical demand of the group. The bonus amounts to 300 euros per month of incidence. Additionally, the agreement guarantees that consecutive months of incidents or vacations will not be scheduled, except in exceptional circumstances.
5. The current Special Leave is not modified, quotas are increased, and all requests not made in 2024 are granted. The quota of crew members who can take advantage of the Special Leave each year increases from 50 to a maximum of 125, and all requests made and not granted in 2024 due to exceeding the established quota are granted.
The cabin crew member can choose the amount of the Special Agreement, as established before the signing of this agreement.
Voluntarily, cabin crew members who wish can opt for a new system to rationalize the contribution bases applied to the Special Agreement. In this case, the cabin crew member will receive annually 30% of the difference between what the Special Agreement would have been without rationalization and the Special Agreement applying rationalization.
Iberia guarantees that the application of the rationalization mechanism of the contribution base applied to the Special Agreement will not cause any harm to the cabin crew member, who will continue to have the right to the contributory retirement pension that would have corresponded to them if the rationalization mechanism had not been applied.
6. Loreto refund. Payment of an additional non-consolidated one-time payment, equivalent to the contributions not made in 2021 to the Social Fund (Loreto). Responds to another of the cabin crew members’ demands in recent years.
7. Pairing compensation (flight assignment) and flights with fewer cabin crew members. Payment of the diet if the new start time of the pairing is delayed to the next calendar day initially scheduled. For long-haul flights if a crew member is missing on the outbound and return flights, an amount equivalent to two (2) days of Wide Body diet will be paid.
8. Quality employment. Transformation of all cabin crew members with fixed discontinuous contracts to ordinary fixed contracts, which means more than 230 transformations.
Expansion of the model
This preliminary agreement between Iberia, CITCP, SITCPLA, UGT, and CC.OO. must still be ratified by the assemblies of the different unions to come into force.
It is an agreement similar to the one already signed by the pilots, adapted to the needs of the cabin crew members. Iberia also wants to extend the benefits of this formula to the ground staff, to share the good profits that the company has been achieving in recent years thanks to everyone’s work.