ESSEN, Germany, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The 28,000 employees at German department store chain Karstadt initially agreed to a plan to reduce wage costs by about 150 million euros ($223.1 million) over three years to prevent a breakup of the company.
On Saturday, German trade union Verdi said it reached a deal with the administrator of Karstadt, a unit of insolvent retailer Arcandor, that should be formally approved this coming Monday.
Although the administrator, Rolf Weidmann, said he saw a good chance for Karstadt as a whole to survive now that staff made this key contribution to cost reduction, Verdi deputy union leader Margaret Moenig-Raane said 17 of Karstadt's 126 department and athletic wear chain stores were still threatened.

(Reporting by Nikola Rotscheroth; editing by Chris Pizzey) Keywords: KARSTADT/ (christiaan.hetzner@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: christiaan.hetzner.reuters.com@reuters.net; +49 69 7565 1249)

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