No increase in weekly hours in Siemens Nixdorf reorganisation

On 25 August 1997, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG (SNI) announced the reorganisation of its loss-making product service division and confirmed the setting up of five new service companies, named Sinitec Service für Informationssysteme GmbH. Originally, SNI intended to increase weekly working time at the new companies from 35 to 40 hours without compensation. However, an agreement signed on 1 September 1997 by employees' representatives and SNI management ensures that the current industry agreements will cover the new companies until 30 April 1998.

On 25 August 1997, the information technology company, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG (SNI), a subsidiary of the German electronic and technology conglomerate Siemens AG, announced the reorganisation of its loss-making product service division. It confirmed the setting up of five new service companies named Sinitec Service für Informationssysteme GmbH (SINITEC) in Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich.

All 1,700 employees were offered a transfer from SNI to the SINITECs at identical terms of employment to those fixed by the current metalworking sector collective agreements, except for working time provisions. Originally, working time at SINITEC was planned to be increased from 35 to 40 hours per week without compensation. However, an agreement made on 1 September 1997 between representatives of the Industriegewerkschaft Metall (IG Metall) metalworkers' union, the salaried employees' union, Deutsche Angestelltengewerkschaft (DAG), the SNI company works council and SNI management ensures that the current industry agreements will cover the new companies in full until 30 April 1998. Furthermore, a new collective agreement for the SINITEC employees has to be concluded by then. The new companies will not be members of the metalworking sector employers' association, Gesamtmetall.

Paul A Stodden, a member of the SNI executive board, hopes that the flat and customer-oriented structure of the medium-sized SINITEC companies will lead to faster reactions of the services to customers' demands. The increase in weekly working hours would have allowed for a wage structure which, on the one hand, maintains the status quo for employees regarding monthly wage income and, on the other hand, ensures competitive prices for the services. In an interview with the business newspaper, Handelsblatt, Mr Stodden said that the planned increase in working hours would reduce hourly labour costs from DEM 140 to DEM 100. The remaining employees had been redeployed and replaced by new trainees. Furthermore, the SINITECs would create 300 to 400 new jobs within two to three years.

IG Metall immediately rejected the plans regarding the increase in weekly working hours without compensation and, in case the new companies would not participate in collective bargaining on terms and conditions of employment, announced industrial conflicts at the SINITECs. Berthold Huber, head of the IG Metall collective bargaining department, regards the agreement signed on 1 September as a success.

However, reports on the opinion of the employees about the planned working time increases were contradictory. According to the IG Metall, more than 70% of the employees opposed the plans to increase working hours without compensation. According to Mr Stodden of SNI, 90% of the workers had agreed to work more hours.