Paris (AFP)

Air France, still hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis and the lack of resumption of air traffic, has put forward several avenues to lower the remuneration of its employees, we learned on Monday from union sources who requested anonymity .

Asked by AFP, the management of the company indicated that it did not wish to comment on ongoing negotiations.

First idea put on the table: integrate the end-of-year bonus into the basic salary so that it is financed by the State as part of the long-term partial activity, said a union source, confirming a information from the newspaper La Tribune.

Partial activity allows employees to receive 84% of their net salary during non-working hours, an amount fully covered by the State.

The end-of-year bonus would therefore be payable by the State and no longer by the company.

The 13th month is already included in the basic salary for the best paid employees of the company.

For pilots, whose premium will be lower in 2021 because they are indexed to their activity, the shortfall is expected to be greater.

Air France, which lost 7.1 billion euros in 2020, also plans to eliminate three days of leave for ground staff and four days for flight staff, according to several union sources.

All these measures would be put in place temporarily, while activity resumes for the aviation sector.

The company presented these options to labor organizations during compulsory annual negotiations (NAO).

The wage moderation having been recorded at the time of state support, no salary increase is envisaged.

The French State, a shareholder of Air France-KLM, has provided support of 7 billion euros to the Franco-Dutch group, asking it to improve its profitability and its environmental impact.

These are "adjustment measures linked to partial activity", argues a union source, for whom "the great reform of Air France is the PDV-PSE (voluntary departure plan - safeguard plan of employment) which continues to unfold its way ".

A departure plan providing for the elimination of 7,580 jobs and an in-depth restructuring of the company was launched last summer.

© 2021 AFP