DGB suspends participation in talks on Baden-Württemberg regional alliance on employment

In January 2000, the regional organisation of Germany's DGB trade union confederation decided to suspend its participation in talks over a tripartite regional "alliance for work and employment" in Baden-Württemberg, on the grounds of a perceived lack of initiative on the part of state government and the allegedly unbending attitude of the employers' associations. DGB's further collaboration was made dependent on bilateral top-level talks with the prime minister of Baden-Württemberg.

Since the mid-1990s, "employment alliances" have been established in most German federal states (Bundesländer). These are mostly tripartite initiatives in which governments, trade unions, and employers' and business associations seek to avoid redundancies and create new jobs (DE9905107F). In Baden-Württemberg, the regional government, ruled by the Christian Democratic Party (Christlich-Demokratische Union, CDU) presented a concept paper for such an alliance in early 1996, in order to discuss some basic ideas within existing tripartite talks. This first attempt failed in March 1996 because the regional organisation of the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) stopped participating in these talks, arguing that it did not expect any progress from them. Three years later, on 4 May 1999, the Baden-Württemberg federal state prime minister (Ministerpräsident), Erwin Teufel, once again invited representatives from unions, trade and industry, employment services and universities to discuss the contents and timetable for a new regional "alliance for work and employment" (Bündnis für Arbeit und Beschäftigung). He sought the conclusion of a joint agreement with commitments from all participants by early 2000. From the beginning, it was clear that the objective of the alliance was to improve the framework for employment policy rather than creating jobs, which Mr Teufel believes is not practicable at state level. From May 1999 onwards, several committees developed a programme for better education, more flexibility and (technological) innovation. Altogether about 59 concrete recommendations for improving the labour market situation in Baden-Württemberg have been made. Examples include a fund for education and employment, as well as the expansion of the educational capacities of universities within the media and information technology sector.

In December 1999, the president of the regional DGB, Rainer Bliesener, criticised the discussions on the alliance as offering "nil for employment", claiming that they mainly summarised the existing policy of the federal government instead of presenting something new. DGB's ideas on establishing an employment fund, financed from the proceeds of the sale of the shares of the regional energy firm Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, have not been pursued in the way originally intended. According to DGB's proposals, the money should be used for measures against unemployment and creating new jobs. Instead, the state government has set up a foundation, laying down that the money from the fund should exclusively be used for non-profit measures. For DGB, this establishes the wrong priorities, because the criterion of "public benefit" receives more importance in the allocation of money than does employment policy.

DGB had also expected concrete outcomes concerning:

• new measures on partial retirement, especially for civil servants, as an important instrument to address unemployment;

• new criteria for the allocation of public contracts, such as linking award of contracts to observance of collectively agreed wages, promotion of women's employment and the offer of training posts (DE0001235F);

• a programme for the recovery of firms with liquidity problems;

• technology information centres for works councils; and

• the redistribution of work through the reduction of overtime hours and the creation of additional part-time jobs.

The federal state government rejected each of these demands, arguing that they are too expensive or not necessary. On 24 January 2000, the regional DGB finally decided to suspend its collaboration in the discussions over the alliance. Mr Bliesener stated that the unions "see no chance for the discussions to create the necessary impetus for employment policy". For this reason, further collaboration does not make sense for unions as long as the federal state government of Baden-Württemberg does not agree to bilateral top-level talks between the prime minister and DGB. DGB hopes that Mr Teufel will relent on some points and take greater responsibility for the alliance. Referring to the state elections to be held in 2000, DGB states that it is not willing to support the alliance if its participation is to be used only symbolically for the election campaign. The unions also criticise the allegedly unbending attitude of the employers' associations. According to DGB, the employers have agreed only to a joint initiative on part-time work and were not willing to sign further concrete agreements, making only declarations of intent without any commitments. Commenting that each party was expected to make its own contributions towards solving the labour market problems, instead of making demands on others, Mr Teufel stated that he did not see the necessity for bilateral top-level talks in advance of the regular meeting on 17 February 2000, when the top-level talks with all participants were due to resume. Despite DGB's withdrawal, Mr Teufel anticipates a successful outcome to the discussions.