FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Arbitration in the Lufthansa ground staff wage dispute is proceeding as planned. The talks led by mediators Bodo Ramelow and Frank-Jürgen Weise continued for the third day in a row on Wednesday, as Lufthansa and the Verdi trade union assured.

Negotiations are taking place behind closed doors in a hotel at Frankfurt Airport. Under great time pressure, the parties involved are trying to avoid indefinite strikes over the Easter vacations. Verdi has held a ballot of its members for this purpose.

According to the previous schedule, the actual arbitration negotiations should run until Wednesday, before the Verdi bargaining commission meets on Thursday to decide on how to proceed. The company will also evaluate the expected arbitration proposals. This is the earliest point at which details are expected.

Verdi is demanding 12.5 percent more pay for the approximately 25,000 Lufthansa ground staff for a one-year term, while the company has offered 10 percent for a 28-month term. Verdi has already organized five rounds of warning strikes among ground staff, as a result of which hundreds of flights were cancelled. There has also been industrial action recently among Lufthansa's flight attendants, who are represented by the branch union Ufo. Arbitration has also been agreed for around 25,000 private aviation security staff in the week after Easter./ceb/DP/ngu