2010 bargaining round examined

Source: WSI, Collective Bargaining Archive

Gender pay gap

Although the considerable gap in average earnings between men and women continues in Germany (23% in 2009 according to figures from Destatis), special provisions to tackle wage discrimination were not included in the collective agreements concluded in 2010.

Disputes and prominent bargaining rounds

The 2010 bargaining rounds saw few industrial disputes about sectoral collective agreements but there were a significant number of smaller disputes.

Some longer strike action was recorded in a three-week dispute over pay for doctors in municipal hospitals. The dispute in May and June 2010 involved the medical doctors’ union Marburger Bund (MB) and the Municipal Employers’ Association (VKA).

The United Services Union (ver.di) recorded some 100 incidents of industrial action, most of them disputes concerning company-level agreements in the private service sector.

Following a joint dispute resolution procedure and a limited number of warning strikes, ver.di agreed a new collective agreement in February 2010 with representatives of the federal government (Bundesregierung) and VKA which covers about 2.1 million public sector employees at federal and local level.

The 2010 bargaining rounds in the German metalworking and electrical industry, which have often in the past had potential for dispute, were strongly affected at the beginning of 2010 by the impact of the economic crisis on the industry. In January 2010, the German Metalworkers’ Union (IG Metall) issued a statement (in German) that some 700,000 jobs were at risk. Unprecedented in its bargaining history, the trade union decided to enter into the bargaining round without having tabled a specific pay demand; instead the focus was on employment and training. Talks between the bargaining parties started long before the current collective agreement was due to expire in April 2010 and were remarkably brief. On 17 February 2010 the bargaining parties signed a new pay agreement and an agreement called ‘Future in work’ (Zukunft in Arbeit, ZiA). This targets establishments implementing short-time working for at least 12 months and provides the opportunity to extend its duration to 24 months by way of a voluntary company agreement. After the end of statutory short-time working, the agreement arranges for a reduction of weekly working time with partial wage compensation. The main terms of the agreement are as follows.

• Weekly working time can be reduced to a minimum of 29 hours in eastern Germany and to 26–28 hours in western Germany (depending on the region).

• A reduction to 28 hours is enforceable through an arbitration committee, while a reduction to 26 hours is to be settled through a works agreement.

• Any reduction below 31 hours a week is to be compensated.

• In the case of 28 weekly working hours, 29.5 hours are to be paid; in case of 26 hours, 28 hours are to be paid.

Following a number of warning strikes, the bargaining parties of the north-west German steel industry agreed on a new wage package in September 2010, which included a €150 one-off payment and a general pay increase of 3.6% with effect from 1 October. The parties also concluded a new collective agreement ensuring that temporary agency workers in the steel industry are paid the same as workers on standard contracts. This is the first such collective agreement in the history of collective bargaining in Germany.

Heiner Dribbusch, Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI)