New agreement signed in west German chemicals

In June 1999, the collective bargaining parties in the west German chemicals industry agreed on a 3% increase in remuneration. The new agreement covers a term of 13 months.

On 1 June 1999, the Mining, Chemicals and Energy Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau,Chemie, Energie, IG BCE) and the German Federation of Chemicals Employers' Associations (Bundesarbeitgeberverband Chemie, BAVC) signed a pilot agreement for the collective bargaining district of Nordrhein. The new agreement provides employees with a flat-rate payment of DEM 200 in respect of May 1999 and a 3% increase in remuneration from June 1999. Vocational trainees will receive no proportional wage increase, but a flat-rate payment of DEM 200. The agreement runs for 13 months.

As all other west German regional bargaining districts have implemented the Nordrhein pilot agreement, the new provisions are now valid for about 590,000 employees in around 1,700 west German chemicals companies. The agreed increase is somewhat higher than in 1998 when the agreement provided only for a 2.4% wage increase over a term of 14 months (DE9805265N). The chemicals agreement is thus following the general trend of the 1999 bargaining round, which has seen wage increases somewhat higher than in the previous year.

Originally, IG BCE had demanded a 5.5% increase in remuneration over only 12 months, while BAVC had demanded a continuation of the "moderate" wage policy of the previous years. Finally, however, both parties considered the agreement an acceptable compromise.