Employment is currently the big issue in the European Union. This report describes the recent initiatives known as PECs (pacts for employment and competitiveness) which are a combination of three main elements: competitiveness, employment and partnership.
In April 1991, German employers stated their support for European integration, the single market, and a reasonable social dimension. Following the June 1997 Amsterdam summit and the related Treaty changes (EU9707135F [1]) as well as in face of the coming Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the
Viessmann, a family-owned heating equipment business which employs roughly 6,500 employees, is a member of the Hessen regional metalworking employers' association, Verband der Metall- und Elektro-unternehmen Hessen eV. After 450 employees were made redundant in 1995, Viessmann did not plan further
On 16 April 1998, the construction workers' union, IG Bau-Agrar-Umwelt, and the construction industry employers' association, Hauptverband der deutschen Bauindustrie (HDB), concluded a new collective agreement for the 830,000 employees in the western German construction industry.
This feature addresses the issue of labour disputes and industrial conflict, and their regulation in Germany by: defining the terms industrial conflict and labour disputes/industrial action; describing the relevant regulations on industrial conflict and industrial action; reporting on the volume of
Corporate Germany is changing. Pressures of low-cost competition from abroad and high costs in Germany, boosted by the European Single Market and the preparations for EU Economic and Monetary Union, are forcing companies to restructure. Mergers and acquisitions are one means of corporate change. The
In Germany, collective bargaining is relatively centralised and takes place mainly in form of regional industry-level bargaining, but is - in certain industries - also quite frequent at national or company level. Trade unions may conclude collective contracts with employers' associations
On 17 February 1998, the first senate of the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) ruled that employees of trade unions are allowed to form their own trade union which may conclude collective agreements (BAG decision /1 AZR 364/97/).
On 2 March 1998, the steel industry employers' association, Arbeitgeberverband Stahl, and the metalworking industry trade union, IG Metall, signed a new framework agreement on employment conditions [1] on partial retirement (DE9710133F [2] and DE9708224F [3]). The agreement covers the steel industry
Total membership of the largest German trade union confederation, the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB), stood at 8.6 million on 31 December 1997, a fall of 350,000 (or 3.9%) since 31 December 1996. Table 1 below provides details of changes in membership levels of
On 17 March 1998 the metalworking employers' associations in the eastern German federal states of of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia founded a new employers' association known as Ostmetall. All three member associations remain independent, but for the future it is planned that the three will