New agreements signed for journalists

In September and October 2000, new collective pay agreements were reached for journalists and freelancers on German newspapers, as well as for editorial staff on magazines. Decisions concerning partial retirement and the status of online editors were postponed to a later date.

In a second round of talks on 12 October 2000, the Federation of German Newspaper Publishers (Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger, BDZV) signed a new pay agreement with the German Media and Printing Union (IG Medien) and the German Federation of Journalists (Deutscher Journalistenverband (DJV), covering more than 18,000 journalists and all freelancers on daily newspapers.

The new agreement provides for a pay increase for permanent employed journalists of 3% backdated to 1 August 2000. An exception is made for the eastern federal states (Länder) of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the pay increase will apply from 1 November 2000. From 1 October 2001, pay will further increase by 2.5%. The pay agreement runs until 31 July 2002. Fees for freelancers are also increased by 3%, backdated to 1 August 2000, and by 2.5% from 1 October 2001.

In addition to this concrete agreement, the parties agreed to further negotiations on partial retirement, the inclusion of online editors in the collective bargaining system and the special problems of freelancers. These negotiations will begin before the end of 2000.

Originally, IG Medien and DJV had demanded:

• a pay increase of 5% for permanently employed journalists and of 5.5% for freelancers;

• a right for all employees to take partial retirement from the age of 55; and

• a collective agreement which is effective for the whole territory of Germany.

Although it was not possible to reach an agreement on all these points, IG Medien and DJV were quite satisfied with the settlement, especially with the fact that it was possible to avoid the exclusion of the two east German federal states from the agreement's scope. Since 1999, no standard collective agreement for journalists in east and west Germany has existed. After the first round of talks in 2000, newspaper publishers from Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had demanded separate bargaining, because they had withdrawn their bargaining mandate from BDZV. The fact that these two states will increase pay three months later than the others can be seen as a compromise to secure the single collective agreement.

On 25 September 2000, IG Medien and DJV concluded a pay agreement with the Federation of German Magazine Publishers (Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger, VDZ) for 9,000 magazine editorial staff. This contains the same provisions as those agreed for for newspaper journalists. The only difference is that the deadline for negotiations on partial retirement is set at 31 December 2000.