Verdi represents around 35,000 employees and says it put forward savings measures of around 600 million euros.

This is apparently not enough for the company, which had to rely on a 9-billion-euro (10.7-billion-dollar) government bailout for survival earlier this year.

A Lufthansa spokeswoman said in Frankfurt that the union had been asked to return to the negotiating table with new proposals that would significantly reduce personnel costs.

“This refusal is a slap in the face of the employees,” said Christine Behle, deputy chairwoman at Verdi, who also respresents workers on Lufthansa’s supervisory board.

Following the bailout, she said it was “absolutely unacceptable that the company demands that employees forgo serious income without providing employment protection guarantees or measures for socially acceptable job cuts in return.”

Behle urged the German government to wield its influence in the matter.

The part-nationalized airline said after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic that it planned to cut 22,000 full-time positions globally, half of which are in Germany.

The Lufthansa fleet is currently set to be reduced by 100 jets.