Innovative package of agreements to safeguard production sites at Sartorius AG

In October 1999, an innovative package of company and works agreements was signed at the filtration and weighing products manufacturer, Sartorius AG, which aims to secure jobs and safeguard facilities at its central manufacturing location in Göttingen, Germany.

In October 1999, a package of company and works agreements was signed at the filtration and weighing products manufacturer, Sartorius AG, which is located in Göttingen (Lower-Saxony). The core of this package was a new company agreement to safeguard production sites (Standortsicherungstarifvertrag), which was concluded by Sartorius management and the Lower-Saxony district organisation of the IG Metall metalworkers' union. The agreement is backdated, running from September 1999 until 30 August 2001.

Since Sartorius' economic performance is currently excellent, it is the declared wish of the company to give a "sign of confidence" to its employees and other "stakeholders". Under the new company agreement, management commits itself to maintaining its facilities at the production sites in Göttingen and to guarantee the current level of 1,464 full-time jobs. A closure or shift of parts of production or other activities will normally be acceptable only if it meets IG Metall's agreement. Any redundancies for economic reasons (betriebsbedingte Kündigungen) must be accepted by the Sartorius works council.

The company agreement also contains an expansion of shiftwork, whereby manufacturing employees in the Sartorius separation technology division will also work on weekends. Once every four weeks, these employees have to work a Saturday morning shift (until 14.00) and a Sunday evening shift (from 22.00). Under the terms of the Working Time Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz), the Sunday working must now be authorised by the federal state of Lower-Saxony.

In a further company agreement on the promotion of employment, it has been agreed that all employees who switch from full-time to part-time work will receive a special bonus which compensates for between 70% and 90% of the consequent reduction in income. In addition, the Sartorius works council and the management signed a new works agreement on the introduction of partial retirement (Altersteilzeit). Workers from the age of 55 can take partial retirement (DE9708224F), receiving 85% of their last net income. To defray the subsequent loss in the employee's retirement benefits, Sartorius will make up the difference so that the employees will receive 95% of full retirement benefits.

After the conclusion of the agreements, both sides expressed their great satisfaction. The chair of the Sartorius executive board, Utz Claassen, called them "epoch-making" agreements which create a "win-win situation for everyone involved". According to Mr Claassen, "the company will gain considerably greater flexibility and will thus achieve higher profits, and our workforce will gain job security."

The head of IG Metall's local office in Göttingen, Gerd-Uwe Boguslawski, called the agreements "a milestone for all employees at Sartorius and a contract that is quite unique in the history of German collective bargaining agreements". Mr. Boguslawski underlined that all the agreements correspond with existing branch-level collective agreements in metalworking which also cover Sartorius.