Schulten, Thorsten

On 1 December 1998, the city of Wuppertal and the Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union (Gewerkschaft Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr, ÖTV) signed a "framework agreement for a municipal pact for jobs" (Rahmenvertrag über eine kommunales Bündnis für Arbeit) for the municipality's 5,000 or so employees. The central aim of the pact is the creation of new jobs in the local administration through a reduction and improved distribution of working time. In particular, the pact provides for:

On 5 November 1998, the employers' association for private banks, Arbeitgeberverband des privaten Bankgewerbes, announced a new programme which seeks to reform the collective agreements applying to the 475,000 employees in Germany's banking sector. Against the background of a steadily intensifying competition - arising from rapid changes in technology, the opening of new markets and the entrance of non-banking competitors into the banking business - the banks see a great need for a high degree of flexibility and adaptability, which they believe might be too restricted under the current collective agreements. Therefore, the banking employers have presented a programme which includes five guidelines for a restructuring of collective bargaining in the sector:

On 14 October 1998, the board of Deutsche Bahn AG, the company works council and the trade union for the railway sector, Gewerkschaft der Eisenbahner Deutschlands (GdED), concluded a new "pact for jobs" (Beschäftigungsbündnis) for the 260,000 or so employees of the German railway company. The new agreement succeeds an earlier employment pact, which was concluded in 1996 and will be terminated at the end of 1998.

In the September 1998 general election, the former opposition parties - the Social Democrats (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) - gained a majority of 21 seats in the German Parliament (Bundestag). The Conservative/Liberal coalition - which was composed of the Christian Democrats (Christlich Demokratische Union, CDU), its Bavarian associate party Christlich Soziale Union, (CSU) and the Liberals (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP) - lost its majority after 16 years in power.

August 1998 saw the publication of a new study of "the potential voters for extreme right-wing parties among trade union members in Germany", conducted by the election poll institute Infratest dimap on behalf of the television and radio station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) ("Das rechtsextreme Wählerpotential bei Gewerkschaftsmitgliedern, Eine Untersuchung von Infratest dimap im Auftrag von WDR 22, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Köln, August 1998).

In a recent study, the Institute for Economics and Social Science (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI) has analysed the development of "local and regional employment pacts" in Germany ("Lokale und regionale Beschäftigungspakte in Deutschland", Astrid Ziegler, in WSI-Mitteilungen 9/97). The initiative for these pacts came from the European Commission, whose "territorial employment pacts" initiative aims to stabilise local and regional labour markets in selected European regions by promoting consensus and cooperation between all relevant local actors. In 1997, the Commission approved 89 territorial employment pacts, of which nine were in various regions in Germany. The German pacts are listed in the table below.

On 30 June 1998, the metalworkers' union, IG Metall, and the Gesamtmetall metalworking employers' association concluded a collective agreement "on the conversion of currency-related provisions in collective agreements in the framework of the currency changeover from the DEM to to the euro" (Tarifvertrag über die Umstellung währungsrelevanter Tarifvertragsbestimmungen im Rahmen des Währungsübergangs von DM auf Euro [1]). [1] http://www.boeckler.de/wsi/tarchiv/iwl/euro-tv.htm

According to a recent study of 1998 provisions by the Institute for Economics and Social Science (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI), most employees in Germany receive a collectively agreed holiday bonus, though there are significant sectoral differences in the amount of the bonus. While most employees are due 30 days' paid leave per year, the average annual holiday bonus for a blue collar worker in a middle-range income group ranges between DEM 205 and DEM 3,043.

Between 1 March and 31 May 1998, works council [1] elections took place in approximately 33,000 German companies. According to the Works Constitution [2] Act §§ 13 (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz), works council elections should be held every four years. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/works-council-2 [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/works-constitution-0

On 13 May 1998, the group board of the German-owned automobile corporation Volkswagen (VW) and the Volkswagen European Works Council announced the foundation of a "VW group world council" (VW-Weltbetriebsrat). Volkswagen is thus one of the first important multinational companies officially to create and recognise a global joint employee representative structure for its 280,000 employees worldwide, working in around 35 production sites on four continents.