Lufthansa reaches agreement with union over ground staff pay

BERLIN (Reuters) - German airline Lufthansa on Wednesday said it had reached an agreement with union Verdi on a pay raise for its 25,000 ground staff after weeks of wage dispute and strikes that have left thousands of passengers stranded across Germany.

"We have an agreement and I am very pleased about that," Michael Niggemann, Human Resources Director at Deutsche Lufthansa AG told journalists in Frankfurt.

"We have found a good compromise .. for our employees with substantial salary increases over the term," Niggemann added, without providing further details on the agreement.

The union has been demanding 12.5% pay increase for approximately 25,000 employees for twelve months, in addition to an inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros. Lufthansa offered around a 10% pay increase for 28-months in addition to an inflation bonus.

Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky said the union was very satisfied with the result of the arbitration process and that it would discuss further details with Lufthansa on Thursday with the aim of putting their agreement on paper and having employees vote on it by the end of the day.

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Klaus Lauer;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)