SWISS’s cabin personnel approves new collective labour agreement

SWISS’ cabin personnel will be working under a new collective labour agreement (CLA) from January 1, 2024. The members of the kapers cabin crew union have approved the proposed new CLA by referendum by a 79,1-per-cent majority with a voter turnout of 87.6 per cent. The new agreement marks the final milestone in SWISS’ post-COVID recovery and lays a sound foundation for a successful future. The new CLA provides SWISS’ cabin crew members with various improvements in both monetary and quality-of-life terms. SWISS will invest a total of CHF 200 million in the benefits concerned over the next five years.

SWISS and kapers had reached an agreement on the new CLA at the beginning of November. In addition to salary increases, CLA24 will provide numerous improvements in cabin crew members’ working terms and conditions and better addresses the individual needs of the SWISS cabin crew corps of some 3,500 employees.

Under the new CLA24, all SWISS cabin crew members will have their full-time basic monthly salary increased by CHF 400. The new CLA also incorporates a two-per-cent inflation-based salary increase and higher expenses rates. In addition, from their third year of service onwards, cabin crew members can choose to receive either a variable compensation component that is linked to SWISS’ business results or a guaranteed partial (and later full) 13^th monthly salary payment. And in a further innovation, standby duties are now also remunerated.

In addition to monetary improvements, SWISS is also investing in the quality of life of its cabin crew members under the new CLA. Their monthly duty rosters will now be published one week earlier, on the 18^th of the previous month, to help them better plan their social lives. They will also be assigned seven fixed free days in each monthly roster. The time within which standby staff are required to report for duty if necessary has also been increased. And CLA24 further offers new part-time working models, such as models tailored to parents’ or students’ needs.  (£1.00 = CHF1.09 at time of publication).