Schulten, Thorsten

On 6-7 September 2001, nearly 50 leading representatives of trade unions from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands met in Houffalize (Belgium) for the fifth annual joint meeting of the 'Doorn group'. As well as major sectoral unions, the participants represented the major national confederations, as follows:

On 10 August 2001, the Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) and the Association of German Cinemas (Hauptverband Deutscher Filmtheater, HDF) signed a new nationwide pay agreement and a new framework collective agreement [1] (Manteltarifvertrag) for employees working in cinemas. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/framework-agreement-on-employment-conditions

At the beginning of July 2001, the management of the German subsidiary of the US-based computer and printer multinational Hewlett-Packard (HP) send a letter to each of its 5,700 regular employees, in which it asked them to join voluntary cost-saving measures aimed at helping the company to manage its current downturn in revenues and profits. The initiative is part of a global campaign launched by the HP headquarters in Palo Alto, California, calling on its 90,000 or so employees worldwide to participate in a global "voluntary payroll savings programme". Under this programme, all employees have been asked to choose one of four options:

On 14 February 2001, the cabinet of the German federal government adopted a draft bill [1] on reform of the Works Constitution [2] Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz, BetrVG) - the law which determines the legal framework for co-determination at the level of the establishment [3] in the private sector, through works council [4] s. The government's bill will now pass through the legislative process, and it is planned that parliament will adopt the new BetrVG before summer 2001, so that the next works council elections in spring 2002 may be held under the provisions of the new Act. [1] http://www.bma.de/download/gesetzesentwuerfe/GesetzentwurfEndfassung.pdf [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/works-constitution-0 [3] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/co-determination-rights-of-the-works-council [4] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/works-council-2

According to the WSI Collective Agreement Archive's recently published annual report [1] on the 2000 collective bargaining round in Germany, trade unions affiliated to the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) concluded new collective pay agreements for some 18.4 million employees during the year. Initially, the unions demanded total increases of between 4% and 5.5%, including both pay rises and financial contributions to new arrangements for partial and early retirement (DE0003243N [2]). After the employers' associations sharply rejected these demands, the majority of the new pay agreements provided for pay rises of between 2% and 3% in 2000 - see table 1 below for details. Many of the sectoral pay agreements run for two years and determine the pay rises in 2001, which will be between 2% and 2.5% under the majority of the agreements. [1] http://www.boeckler.de/ebib/volltexte/Tarifpolitische_Halb-_Jahresberichte-2 [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/overview-of-trade-union-demands-for-2000-bargaining-round

At the beginning of January 2001, the Federal Employment Service (Bundesanstalt für Arbeit, BfA) announced that about 1.85 billion paid overtime hours were worked in Germany in 2000. Compared with the previous year, this represented an increase of 61 million paid overtime hours, leading to the highest number of annual overtime hours since 1995 - see table below. On average, each German employee worked about 61 hours of paid overtime in 2000.

Since the most recent general election in September 1998, the German federal government has been composed of a "red-green" coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen). The coalition parties were confronted with considerable political difficulties in 1999 - including losses in almost all important regional elections - but regained a much stronger political position in 2000. This was partly the result of far-reaching financial scandals within the main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Party (Christlich Demokratische Union, CDU) which thereby underwent a deep political crisis. Against this background, the red-green parties won the two major regional elections in 2000, in the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein and North-Rhine Westphalia.

On 20-21 November 2000, at an extraordinary congress in Magdeburg, the Commerce, Banking and Insurance Union (Gewerkschaft Handel, Banken und Versicherungen, HBV) resolved to bring its participation in the national tripartite Alliance for Jobs (DE9812286N [1]) to an end. A great majority of the delegates at the HBV congress adopted a resolution stating that the Alliance is "no longer seen as a suitable instrument for the promotion of trade union goals." Therefore, HBV will "argue for a termination of the Alliance within the forthcoming new Unified Service Sector Trade Union (Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, Ver.di) (in which HBV is participating, alongside four other unions - DE0012295N) and the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB), as well as in public debate." [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/tripartite-agreement-establishes-national-alliance-for-jobs

On 8-9 September 2000, at an extraordinary congress in Bielefeld, the German Media Trade Union (IG Medien) resolved to opt out of the national tripartite Alliance for Jobs (DE9812286N [1]). A great majority of the delegates at the IG Medien congress adopted a resolution [2], according to which the media workers' union will "no longer participate in the Alliance's meetings and working groups". Furthermore, IG Medien decided to "argue for an immediate opt-out from the Alliance within the forthcoming new Unified Service Sector Trade Union (Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, Ver.di) (DE9911225F) (in which IG Medien is participating) and the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB), as well as in public" debate. IG Medien, with about 179,000 members, is the smallest DGB-affiliated trade union and the first union which has decided to pull out of the national Alliance. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/tripartite-agreement-establishes-national-alliance-for-jobs [2] http://www.igmedien.de/news/meldungen/2000/091206.html

On 18 September 2000, the executive board of the German car producer Volkswagen AG and the Lower-Saxony district organisation of the IG Metall metalworkers' union signed new company agreements for the 100,000 or so employees at the company's west German production locations. Volkswagen AG is the only German car producer which is not covered by the branch-level collective agreements for metalworking but has traditionally had a company agreement.