Interim report on 2008 bargaining round

Notes: Annual pay increases in 2008 compared with 2007. Figures are calculated on the basis of all pay increases coming into effect in 2008, collectively agreed either in the first half of 2008 or in previous years.

Source: WSI Collective Agreement Archive 2008 (as at 30 June 2008)

Main agreements

On 19 February 2008, the German Metalworkers’ Union (Industriegewerkschaft Metall, IG Metall) and the employers’ association for the German steel industry (Arbeitgeberverband Stahl) agreed on a new package of collective agreements, covering some 91,000 employees in the northwestern German steel industry of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Bremen (DE0803029I). On 21 February, the agreement was also adopted for the 16,000 employees in the eastern German steel industry. The provisions of the new agreements comprise a €200 one-off payment in February 2008 and a general pay increase of 5.2% with effect from 1 March 2008.

On 31 March 2008, the United Services Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) agreed with representatives of the federal government (Bundesregierung) and the Municipal Employers’ Association (Vereinigung der kommunalen Arbeitgeberverbände, VKA) on a package of collective agreements on pay and working time for federal and municipal employees in the public services sector (DE0804029I). The agreements cover about 2.1 million public sector employees who work in local transport, utilities and hospitals, as well as teachers with an employee status. The agreements, which cover the period 2008–2009, provide for an average wage increase of about 5% for all federal and municipal employees in public services. In exchange for the pay rise, the trade unions had to accept an increase in the standard weekly working time in western Germany.

On 16 April 2008, the Mining, Chemicals and Energy Industrial Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau, Chemie, Energie, IG BCE) and the German Federation of Chemicals Employers’ Associations (Bundesarbeitgeberverband Chemie, BAVC) concluded several collective agreements on wages, progressive retirement and vocational training (DE0805029I). The settlement covers about 550,000 workers in the chemicals industry. The bargaining parties agreed on a pay rise of 4.4% for a period of 13 months, to be followed by a further 3.3% for the subsequent 12 months. In addition, agreement was reached on a one-off payment for each month in the first stage. The payment is calculated on the basis of 13 times 0.5% of the collectively agreed monthly wage, amounting to a total of 7% of the monthly wage for the entire period. However, if the employer and works council at company level are in agreement, it could be annulled, decreased or delayed for economic reasons by using an ‘opening clause’ (Öffnungsklausel, DE0606019I).

In mid April 2008, after almost a year of negotiations and 11 days of strike action, the German Engine Drivers’ Union (Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer, GDL) and the German rail company Deutsche Bahn (DB) finally settled on a new separate collective agreement covering some 20,000 engine drivers at DB. The agreement brought about pay increases and a new framework agreement on pay scales (DE0804049I). In July 2007, the rail workers’ trade unions – Transport, Service and Networks (Transport, Service und Netze, Transnet), affiliated to DGB, and the Transport Trade Union GDVA (Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA), affiliated to the German Civil Service Association (Deutscher Beamtenbund, dbb) – had already negotiated a collective agreement with DB, covering 134,000 employees. This agreement had not been accepted by GDL.

Other collective agreements concluded in the first half of 2008 included those in sectors such as agriculture, textiles and paper processing (Table 2).