Lufthansa: using part-time staff to help manage seasonal demand CLARE KELLIHER
The German airline, Lufthansa, one of Europe’s largest airlines, employs some cabin crew on part-time contracts to help them deal with the seasonal nature of their business. In 2013 they launched a new scheme to hire up to 500 cabin crew on part-time contracts designed to cover the peaks in demand over the summer months more effectively. They now offer two types of part-time contract – one which approximates to 83 per cent of full-time working and the other 50 per cent of full-time working. What is unusual about these part-time contracts is that they are part-time across the working year, rather than across a working week. The first type, the seasonal contract, is a permanent contract of employment. However, the member of cabin crew alternates between working full-time and parttime at different times of the year. In practice, under this arrangement, the member of staff works full time from March to October and part time from December to February. The pay the employee receives, however, does not vary according to whether they are working full or part time. They are paid the same amount each month and likewise their social insurance is paid by the company throughout the year. Additional payments such as disturbance allowances, which are linked to being away,

are only earned when the member of staff is actually flying. The second type of part-time contract offered for cabin crew is the ‘summer-season contract’ and is targeted at students and young professionals who may only want to work as cabin crew for a limited amount of time. These contracts are fixed term (18 or 24 months) which can be extended one time only for a further two years. In this case employees work half time in either three- or six-month periods, followed by either three or six months non-working time. As with the seasonal contract, they are paid throughout the year in equal instalments, whether they are working or not, but shift allowances and daily ‘absence money’ are only paid when working. In both the above cases these cabin crew undergo the normal 12-week training period. Like full-time, permanent members of staff they enjoy access to other company benefits such as support for further education, reduced priced air tickets and discounts with hotels and car rental companies. Holiday entitlement and vacation bonuses are paid on a pro-rata basis. Prior to these new arrangements being introduced, Lufthansa and their largest trade union, Unabhaengige Flugbegleiter Organisation, signed an agreement allowing different compensation models for new employees. It is also noteworthy that the use of temporary staff are capped at 15 per cent of total cabin crew numbers (in the region of 19,000).
Questions
1 What do you think the risks might be for Lufthansa in employing staff in this way?
2 Why do you think the new 50 per cent contracts are offered as temporary contracts with a one-time only extension?
3 Apart from these 50 per cent and 83 per cent contracts, are there other models that might be useful for businesses such as airlines which experience seasonality in their demand patterns?