On 19 May 2006, following 14 weeks of strike action, the Employers’ Association of German Länder (Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder, TdL [1]) and the United Services Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di [2]) agreed on a new collective agreement that will cover about 780,000 public sector employees in all federal states except Hesse and Berlin. The new Public Sector Collective Agreement on Länder (/Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst der Länder/, TV-L) replaces all previous collective and wage agreements. The agreement followed the longest strike action held in public services for decades. It was approved by 83% of the trade union members in a ballot at the end of May 2006.[1] http://www.tdl.bayern.de/[2] http://international.verdi.de/ver.di_fremdsprachig/was_ist_ver.di_-_eine_einfuehrung_auf_englisch
In May 2006, the United Services Union and the Employers’ Association of German Länder reached agreement on a new collective agreement for public sector employees in nearly all the federal states. The federal states’ approval of a single general framework agreement was controversial, in comparison to the negotiations at national and municipal level, where compromises were reached as early as 1 October 2005. As part of the agreement, the union had to concede some of its demands in relation to weekly working time. The agreement provides the option, at regional level, to cancel the working time agreement prior to its expiry date.
On 19 May 2006, following 14 weeks of strike action, the Employers’ Association of German Länder (Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder, TdL) and the United Services Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) agreed on a new collective agreement that will cover about 780,000 public sector employees in all federal states except Hesse and Berlin. The new Public Sector Collective Agreement on Länder (Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst der Länder, TV-L) replaces all previous collective and wage agreements. The agreement followed the longest strike action held in public services for decades. It was approved by 83% of the trade union members in a ballot at the end of May 2006.
Provisions of new agreement
The collective agreement covers the period from 1 November 2006 to 31 December 2009. Nevertheless, opening clauses allow federal states to individually cancel and to renegotiate specific agreements at an earlier stage.
The agreement applies to all federal states except the states of Hesse, which left TdL, and Berlin, which was expelled after it extended the privileged collective agreement for western Germany to the eastern part of Berlin.
Length of working week
The most highly contested issue in this agreement concerns the weekly working time provisions, which will come into effect from 1 November 2006; these can be cancelled at regional level (Landesbezirk) by 31 December 2007 at the earliest. In eastern Germany, the working week in the sector is to be fixed at 40 hours per week. In western Germany, the average working week will be defined by each federal state, which will calculate the weekly hours on the basis of an average of the actual and the collectively agreed working time in that state. According to ver.di, the average working week will thus vary, ranging from an average of 38.7 hours in Schleswig-Holstein at the lowest end of the scale to 39.73 hours in Bavaria at the highest end.
| State | Average working time |
|---|---|
| Baden-Württemberg | 39.35 hours |
| Bavaria | 39.73 hours |
| Bremen | 39.22 hours |
| Hamburg | 38.92 hours |
| Lower Saxony | 39.32 hours |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 39.68 hours |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 39.00 hours |
| Saarland | 39.10 hours |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 38.70 hours |
Source: ver.di, 2006
Some groups of employees – such as nurses, employees working in motorway maintenance, theatres and harbours or those working shifts or at night – are exempt from the extension of working time and will continue to work a 38.5 hour week. This will mean, however, that other groups of employees will have to work longer hours to meet the calculated average and that there is no longer one uniform standard working time for all employees at federal state level.
Pay increases
Broadly in line with to the results achieved at national and municipal level, salaries will increase by 2.9% from 1 January 2008 in western Germany and from 1 May 2008 in eastern Germany. Pay in eastern Germany will remain at 92.5% of western German pay levels. There will be three lump-sum payments in July 2006, January 2007 and September 2007 of varying amounts according to pay grades.
The annual holiday and Christmas bonuses are to be replaced by a new single annual bonus. This payment will be differentiated according to pay grade and will mean that those in the lower pay grades will receive a proportionally higher annual payment than those in the upper pay scales. The bonus will range from 35% of the monthly wage in the highest pay grades to 95% of the monthly wage in the lowest pay grades in western Germany, and between 30% and 71.5% of the monthly wage in eastern Germany.
From 1 January 2007, additional yearly payments related to individual performance will be introduced. Performance-related payments should amount to at least 1% of the total payroll of a public employer and should increase gradually to 8% of the total payroll.
Background
In recent years, the governments of the federal states have taken a leading role in challenging the traditional German practice of negotiating one general framework agreement for all public employees at national, federal state and local level. In 2003, TdL took the state governments out of the public sector collective agreement governing Christmas and holiday bonuses (DE0306202N). In May 2004, the association cancelled the agreement on working time, which fixed the average working week at 38.5 hours.
Following the extension of working time for civil servants not covered by the framework collective agreement, several states unilaterally extended the working week for new employees to between 40 and 42 hours. The state of Hesse had already renounced membership of TdL in 2004 and several other states announced their intention to do so in the future. In 2005, TdL withdrew completely from the common bargaining table of national, federal state and municipal employers, rejecting the approval of the new general framework agreement (Tarifvertrag öffentlicher Dienst, TVöD) (DE0503203F).
For several months, negotiations ran parallel to those of the municipal employer associations of the federal states. Following the failure to reach agreement, ver.di called for industrial action in February 2006, coinciding with the beginning of strike action at municipal level (DE0605019I). The union’s main aim was to defend the standard working week of 38.5 hours; conversely, TdL demanded an extension of the working week to 42 hours.
Commentary
The separate collective agreement for public sector employees of the federal states marks a further step towards the decentralisation and differentiation of collective bargaining in public services. The fact that each of the federal states will be able to cancel the specific agreements on working time on their own is likely to lead to more conflict and disputes.
Birgit Beese, Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI)
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2006), New collective agreement for public sector, article.
