Alitalia has clinched a deal with its ground staff, leaving just the cabin crews still to agree new contract conditions that are seen as crucial to keeping the airline aloft.
Ground staff agreed a deal early on Thursday, rolling back their benefits and opening the way for some 2,500 job cuts, the airline said, two days after the Italian national carrier persuaded its pilots to work longer hours for less pay.
The European Commission said it welcomed Alitalia's deal with ground staff and would examine the overall restructuring plan to make sure it did not contain any state aid.
"The only thing we can say at this stage is that it is good news for the Commission," Commission spokesman Amador Sanchez Rico said about the deal.
"We are waiting for the new restructuring plan for the company and will look that there are no elements of state aid," Sanchez Rico told a daily briefing.
Alitalia Management met the flight attendants' unions on Thursday, hoping to wrap up an accord by the end of the day in order to start a fresh round of negotiations with all three sets of employees on a wide-ranging restructuring of the airline.
Alitalia said its agreement with ground staff would save the company about EUR150 million (USD$182.3 million) and allow for 2,500 lay-offs. The airline had originally demanded 3,500 job cuts from its army of ground workers.
The deal included a block on inflation-linked salary benefits, a two year waiver of company payments to a social security fund and new rules on days off.
The airline struck a deal with the powerful pilots union late on Tuesday. The agreement, which includes 289 layoffs, will save it EUR52 million (USD$63.2 million) in 2006.
Alitalia's unions have demanded help from the Italian government, which might be able to soften the blow to unemployed workers by transferring them to other state-run entities.
