FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The wage dispute involving Lufthansa ground staff has been settled. Following successful mediation, Lufthansa and the trade union Verdi have agreed on the main features of a collective agreement for the approximately 25,000 employees, as they announced in Frankfurt on Wednesday evening. This averts the threat of strikes by this group of employees over the Easter vacations.

"We are very satisfied with the result of the arbitration", said Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky. Michael Niggemann, Lufthansa's Chief Human Resources Officer, said that they were also very satisfied. "But we have major investments ahead of us". However, the agreed salary increases would entail additional costs. Details will be announced on Thursday.

Both sides had been negotiating behind closed doors since Monday under the moderation of the mediators - Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke) and the former head of the Federal Employment Agency, Frank-Jürgen Weise. The aim was to avoid indefinite strikes over the Easter vacations. Verdi had threatened ground staff with an indefinite strike in the event that arbitration failed.

The union had demanded 12.5 percent more pay for the approximately 25,000 Lufthansa ground staff for a one-year term, while the company had 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.

However, there are several other wage disputes in the aviation industry. For example, arbitration was recently agreed in the wage dispute for employees of private aviation security service providers at German airports. It is to begin on Friday, April 5, under the leadership of former Bremen State Councillor for Finance Hans-Henning Lühr (SPD). Lufthansa flight attendants have also already gone on strike for higher wages, but no solution has yet been found. In addition, pilots and cabin crew at Lufthansa subsidiary Discover are demanding a first pay scale for the still young airline./ceb/als/DP/ngu