Social policy: EU Judgment in Case C-660/20 Lufthansa CityLine

Thursday 19th October 2023

Judgment in Case C-660/20 Lufthansa CityLine

(Social Policy)

The parties are in dispute as to whether the applicant is entitled, as a part-time worker, to a higher level of remuneration – referred to as Mehrflugdienststundenvergütung (remuneration for additional flying duty hours).

The defendant is a limited liability company incorporated under German law. It runs an air carrier that operates short-haul and long-haul flights. The applicant has been employed by the defendant as a pilot and first officer since 2001.

The applicant has been working part-time since 2010, with his working hours reduced to 90% of full-time working hours. In accordance with an agreement between management and the works council, the applicant is deployed as a full-time worker without any reduction in the number of flying duty hours to be worked. However, he receives an additional 37 days of leave per year. His basic remuneration, including service increments, is reduced by 10%.

According to the collective wage agreements for the defendant’s cockpit crew that are applicable to the employment relationship, one component of the working time that is remunerated by means of the basic pay is the flight duty time. A worker receives remuneration for additional flying duty hours on top of the basic remuneration if he or she has worked a certain number of flying duty hours in a month and has thereby exceeded (“triggered”) the thresholds for the higher level of remuneration. For that purpose, the provisions of the collective agreements establish three different hourly rates, incrementally increasing in amount, which are higher than the hourly pay determined on the basis of the basic remuneration. These are to be used to calculate remuneration if the worker has worked 106, 121, and 136 monthly flying duty hours on short-haul flights and has thereby exceeded the “trigger” thresholds. Lower trigger thresholds of 93, 106, and 120 flying duty hours per month apply to long-haul flights.

The collective agreements make no provision, in the case of workers who work part-time, for those thresholds to be reduced according to their part-time percentage.

In order to be able to determine the applicant’s monthly remuneration for additional flying duty hours, the defendant calculates an individual trigger threshold that takes into account the applicant’s part-time work. For flying duty hours, in which the applicant works in excess of his individual trigger threshold, he receives the hourly pay determined on the basis of his basic remuneration. It is only if his flight duty time exceeds the trigger thresholds applicable to full-time workers that he receives a higher level of remuneration.

By his action, the applicant seeks payment from the defendant of the difference between the remuneration already paid and the higher level of remuneration for additional flying duty hours on the basis – in accordance with the principle of pro rata temporis – of trigger thresholds that have been lowered according to his part-time factor.

The Arbeitsgericht (Labour Court) upheld the action. The Landesarbeitsgericht (Higher Labour Court) dismissed it. By his appeal on a point of law, for which leave was granted by the Higher Labour Court, the applicant continues to pursue his objective of having the defendant ordered to pay the difference in remuneration.

Background Documents C-660/20