Annual report on 2009 collective bargaining round

Dribbusch, Heiner

Overview

Article

Annual report on 2009 collective bargaining round

Published: 8 April 2010

Heiner Dribbusch

Collective bargaining

Agreements

Pay and income

In January 2009, the Collective Agreement Archive (WSI-Tarifarchiv [1]) of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI [2]) within the Hans Böckler Foundation (Hans Böckler Stiftung, HBS [3]) published its report (in German) [4] on Germany’s 2009 collective bargaining round. The study evaluates collective agreements concluded by trade unions affiliated to the Confederation of German Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB [5]) in 2009, affecting some 7.9 million employees, or about 41% of all persons covered by a collective agreement. The study found that a further 7.9 million employees received pay increases in 2009 which had already been agreed in previous years. In the same year, the trade unions initially made claims for pay increases of between 4.5% and 10%.[1] http://www.tarifvertrag.de/[2] http://www.boeckler.de/8.html[3] http://www.boeckler.de/[4] http://www.boeckler.de/547_102377.html[5] http://www.dgb.de/

In January 2010, the Hans Böckler Institute for Economic and Social Research presented its annual report on Germany’s 2009 collective bargaining round. The study found that a further 7.9 million employees received pay increases in 2009. The average increase in collectively agreed wages and salaries was 2.6% in 2009, which was below the 2.9% increase of the previous year. The average duration of pay agreements signed in 2009 was 24.1 months, compared with 22.4 months in 2008.

In January 2009, the Collective Agreement Archive (WSI-Tarifarchiv) of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI) within the Hans Böckler Foundation (Hans Böckler Stiftung, HBS) published its report (in German) on Germany’s 2009 collective bargaining round. The study evaluates collective agreements concluded by trade unions affiliated to the Confederation of German Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) in 2009, affecting some 7.9 million employees, or about 41% of all persons covered by a collective agreement. The study found that a further 7.9 million employees received pay increases in 2009 which had already been agreed in previous years. In the same year, the trade unions initially made claims for pay increases of between 4.5% and 10%.

Collectively agreed pay increases

The average collectively agreed increase in wages and salaries was 2.6% in 2009, which was below the 2.9% increase of 2008 (Table 1). In western Germany, the average collectively agreed increase was 2.6%, whereas it was 3% in eastern Germany. The pay increases varied from sector to sector – that is, between 1.4% in the distributive trades and 4.1% in energy, water supply and mining.

However, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt, Destatis), actual gross wages and salaries declined by 0.4% in 2009, compared with an increase of 2.3% in 2008.

Table 1: Annual increases in collectively agreed pay, by sector, 2005–2009 (%)*
Sector	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005
Construction	2.4	3.0	2.0	0.7	0.5
Food industry	2.4	2.5	2.2	1.6	1.8
Transport and communication	2.9	3.5	2.2	2.0	1.9
Raw material and production industries	2.5	3.3	2.6	2.7	2.0
Horticulture, agriculture, forestry	2.8	3.7	1.7	1.2	0.8
Investment goods industry	3.3	2.6	3.4	2.4	1.8
Consumption goods industry	2.4	2.8	2.5	1.5	1.5
Distributive trades	1.4	1.9	2.0	0.9	1.7
Energy, water supply and mining	4.1	3.0	2.0	1.8	1.8
Private services, non-profit sector	1.9	3.0	1.4	0.8	1.6
Banking, insurance	1.8	2.7	1.8	2.1	1.7
Public services, social security	3.7	4.4	0.6	0.5	0.9
All sectors	2.6	2.9	2.2	1.5	1.6

Note: * Percentages show increases against the previous year. Source: WSI Collective Agreement Archive, 2009

Duration and provisions of collective agreements

The trend of recent years to extend the duration of collective agreements continued. The average duration of pay agreements signed in 2009 was 24.1 months, compared with 22.4 months in 2008. In eastern Germany, the duration of collective agreements in the past tended to be longer than in the west German bargaining areas – however, this pattern was reversed in 2009 (Table 2).

**Table 2: Average duration of collective agreements in western and eastern Germany, 2001–2009 (in months)**
	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Western Germany	14.1	18.1	20.4	21.8	25.2	21.6	22.2	22.2	24.3
Eastern Germany	16.4	19.7	21.0	22.0	28.4	24.7	21.9	23.4	23.2

Source: WSI Collective Bargaining Archive, 2009

Many collective agreements contained so-called ‘zero months’ – that is, months within the duration of the collective agreement in which the agreed pay increase was delayed (Table 3).

**Table 3: Selected pay agreements of 2009 bargaining round**
Date	Sector/industry	Provisions
12 November 2008	Metalworking industry (DE0812049I)	one-off payment of €510 between November 2008 and January 2009 2.1% increase on 1 February 2009 2.1% increase on 1 May 2010 (based on income of November 2008) one-off payment of €122 in September 2009 duration until 30 April 2010
31 January 2009	Deutsche Bahn AG (rail company) (DE0902039I)	2.5% increase on 1 February 2009 2% increase on 1 January 2010 €500 one-off payment for December 2009 duration until 31 July 2010
1 March 2009	Public sector, federal state level (Länder) (DE0904019I)	€40 one-off payment for January and February 2009 €40 increase in all wages from 1 March 2009 3% increase on 1 March 2009 1.2% increase on 1 March 2010 duration until 31 December 2010
1 April 2009	Steel industry, Bremen, Lower Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia	€350 one-off payment for April to December 2009 2% increase on 1 January 2010 duration until 31 August 2010
24 April 2009	Banking	four so-called ‘zero months’ with no increase (July to October 2008); 2.5% increase with effect from 1 November 2008; €200 one-off payment in February 2010; duration until 30 April 2010
12 May 2009	Sweets industry, North-Rhine Westphalia	two so-called zero months with no increase (April and May 2009) 3% increase on 1 June 2009 1.9% increase on 1 June 2010 duration until 31 March 2011
23 May 2009	Construction (DE0906029I)	€60 one-off payment for April and May 2009 west Germany and Berlin: 2.3% increase on 1 June 2009; 2.4% on 1 April 2010; duration until 31 March 2011 east Germany: increase of hourly wages by the euro cents of the increases in west Germany; successive increase of collectively agreed minimum wages
11 June 2009	Retail, North-Rhine Westphalia (DE0907029I)	four so-called zero months with no increase (May to August 2009) 2% increase from 1 September 2009 1.5% increase from 1 September 2010 €150 one-off payment in April 2010 duration until 30 April 2011
29 October 2009	Industrial cleaning (blue- collar employees) (DE0911029I)	three so-called zero months with no increase (October to December 2009) 3.1% increase in west Germany and Berlin and between 3.8% and 6.2% in east Germany, depending on the bargaining region, on 1 January 2010 1.8% increase in west Germany and Berlin and 2.5% in east Germany on 1 January 2011 duration until 31 December 2011

Source: WSI Collective Bargaining Archive, 2009

Gender pay gap

Although a considerable gap in average earnings between men and women continues to exist in Germany – amounting to 23% in 2008 (DE1002019I) – special provisions to tackle wage discrimination were not included in the collective agreements concluded in 2009.

Disputes and contentious bargaining rounds

The major disputes in the 2009 bargaining round took place in the public and private services sector. The 2009 bargaining round for public employees at federal state level (Länder) had somewhat less potential for conflict compared with previous rounds, as it only focused on pay and not on the contentious issue of working time. However, as negotiations failed to deliver a quick settlement, the trade unions in the public sector organised about 12 major days of industrial action in February 2009 and called on their members to join the warning strikes. The strike calls received particular support from teachers in a number of east German states. According to the German Union of Education (Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft, GEW), some 100,000 teachers participated in several waves of one-day strikes, the majority of the participants being women. The major walk-out by teachers was a new feature of German bargaining and resulted in the largest strikes ever organised by GEW.

A new grading system and occupational health were the most important issues in a highly contentious bargaining round for some 220,000 public employees working in kindergartens, daycare centres, as well as the youth welfare service and social agencies (DE0909019I). Noise levels, as well as psychological and physical stress, often related to understaffing, were among the most urgent problems identified by workers in the sector. In July 2009, a bargaining union led by the United Services Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) and GEW reached a settlement with representatives of the Municipal Employers’ Association (Vereinigung der kommunalen Arbeitgeberverbände, VKA) only following months of dispute and high-profile strike action involving tens of thousands of children’s teachers, crèche workers and social workers. A prominent issue in the dispute was the situation of occupational health in kindergartens, crèches and daycare centres for children.

On 29 October 2009, following 10 days of strike action, the Trade Union for Building, Forestry, Agriculture and the Environment (Industriegewerkschaft Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt, IG BAU) and the Association of the Federal Guild of Cleaning Building Service Contractors (Bundesinnungsverband des Gebäudereiniger-Handwerks, BIV) agreed on a new collective agreement on pay for the industrial cleaning industry. The collective agreement also set new minimum hourly wages for industrial cleaners with effect from 1 January 2010 at €8.40 in western Germany and €6.83 in eastern Germany. On 1 January 2011, the rates will rise to €8.55 and €7.00, respectively.

Heiner Dribbusch, Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI)

Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.

Eurofound (2010), Annual report on 2009 collective bargaining round, article.