Report assesses 2012 bargaining round

Dribbusch, Heiner

Ħarsa ġenerali

Artikolu

Report assesses 2012 bargaining round

Ippubblikat: 12 March 2013

Heiner Dribbusch

Collective bargaining

Relazzjonijiet industrijali

In January 2013, the annual report on collective bargaining [1] in 2012 was published by the Collective Agreement Archive (WSI-Tarifarchiv [2]) of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI [3]) within the Hans Boeckler Foundation (HBS [4]).[1] http://www.boeckler.de/wsi_42315_42324.htm[2] http://www.boeckler.de/index_wsi_tarifarchiv.htm[3] http://www.tarifvertrag.de/[4] http://www.boeckler.de/

In January 2013, the WSI research institute presented its annual report on Germany’s 2012 collective bargaining round. Collective agreements affected 8.9 million employees, or about 46% of all those working in sectors and companies covered by a collective agreement. A further 8.6 million workers received rises in 2012 which had been agreed in previous years. The average collectively agreed rise was 2.7% in 2012, compared to 2% in 2011. Actual monthly gross wages rose by 2.6%.

Background

In January 2013, the annual report on collective bargaining in 2012 was published by the Collective Agreement Archive (WSI-Tarifarchiv) of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI) within the Hans Boeckler Foundation (HBS).

The study evaluated collective agreements concluded by unions affiliated to the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) in 2012. The agreements covered around 8.9 million employees who are liable for social security contributions. That figure translates to about 46% of those employees working in industries covered by a collective agreement. Another 8.6 million employees were covered by pay increases in 2012 which had already been agreed in previous years.

In 2012, the trade unions initially made claims for pay increases of between 5% and 7%.

Collectively agreed pay increases

The average collectively agreed increase in wages and salaries was 2.7% in 2012, higher than the 2% increase of 2011. In western Germany the average collectively agreed increase was 2.7%, compared with an average of 2.8% in eastern Germany. Pay increases varied from sector to sector, as shown in Table 1. They were around 2% in the banking and insurance sector, and as high as 3.3% in the investment goods industry.

**Table 1: Annual increases in collectively agreed pay (%)**
	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008
Construction	2.5	2.3	2.4	2.4	3.0
Food industry	2.8	2.3	2.4	2.4	2.5
Transport and communication	2.3	1.6	2.3	2.9	3.5
Raw material and production industries	3.0	2.2	2.2	2.5	3.3
Horticulture, agriculture, forestry	2.9	1.6	1.6	2.8	3.7
Investment goods industry	3.3	1.8	1.0	3.3	2.6
Consumption goods industry	2.1	2.0	1.8	2.4	2.8
Distribution	2.7	2.0	2.5	1.4	1.9
Energy, water, mining	2.1	2.1	2.9	4.1	3.0
Private services, non-profit sector	2.5	2.8	2.2	1.9	3.0
Banking, insurance	2.0	1.1	1.8	1.8	2.7
Public services, social security	2.2	1.8	0.9	3.7	4.4
All sectors	2.7	2.0	1.8	2.6	2.9

Source: WSI Collective Agreement Archive 2013

According to the Federal Statistical Office (destatis), actual monthly gross wages and salaries increased by 2.6% in 2012, compared with 3.4% in 2011.

The trend in previous years to extend the duration of collective agreements seems to have been reversed. The average duration of pay agreements signed in 2012 was 18 months, compared with 22.8 months in 2011 and 24.3 in 2010. In eastern Germany in the past the duration of collective agreements tended to be longer than in the western German bargaining areas. This pattern was reversed in 2007 and 2009, and was seen again in 2012, as shown in Table 2.

**Table 2: Average duration of collective agreements (in months)**
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Western Germany	20.4	21.8	25.2	21.6	22.2	22.2	24.3	23.6	22.6	17.9
Eastern Germany	21.0	22.0	28.4	24.7	21.9	23.4	23.2	28.3	23.9	19.1

Source: WSI Collective Bargaining Archive

A number of collective agreements contained so-called zero months. These were months within the duration of the collective agreements in which the agreed pay increase was delayed. This is indicated in Table 3, which shows the outcomes of various sectoral negotiations in 2012.

**Table 3: Selected pay agreements in 2012 bargaining round**
Date	Sector	Provisions
12 January 2012	Deutsche Post [German Mail]	One-off payment of €400 for three months; 4% increase on 1 April 2012;duration of 15 months until 31 March 2013
31 March 2012	Public Sector Federal and local level DE1205029I	3.5% increase on 1 March 2012; 1.4% on 1 February 2013; 1.4% on 1 August 2013;duration of 24 months until 28 February 2014
4 May 2012	Hotels & Restaurants, North-Rhine Westphalia	1 zero month; 3.1% increase on 1 June 2012; 1.6% increase on 1 February 2013; 1.6% on 1 September 2013; duration of 24 months until 30 April 2014
19 May / 22 May 2012	Metal working industry DE1206019I	1 zero month; 4.3% increase on 1 May 2012; duration of 13 months until 30 April 2013
24 May 2012	Chemicals industry	One zero month; 4.5% for 18 months;duration of 19 months according to region until end of December 2013, January 2014 or February 2014 depending on region
30 May 2012	Car repair trade Baden Wurttemberg	1 zero-month; 4% increase on 1 June 2012; duration of 13 months until 31 May 2013
31 May 2012	Volkswagen	4.3% increase on 1 June 2012; duration of 13 months until 30 June 2013
5 June 2012	Banking	One-off payment of €350 for four months;2.9% increase on 1 July 2012;2.5% on 1 July 2013;duration of 26 months until 30 April 2014
6 September 2012	Paper processing industry	2 zero months; 3.1% increase on 1 November 2012; 3% on 1 November 2013;duration 24 months until 31 August 2014
12 September 2012	Energy sector North-Rhine Westphalia	2.95% on 1 September 2012; duration of 14 months until 31 October 2013
7 November 2012	Textiles industry Western Germany	2 zero months; one-off payment of €240 for 4 months; 3% increase on 1 May 2013; 2% on 1 June 2014; duration of 24 months until 31 October 2014

Source: WSI Collective Bargaining Archive as of 31 December 2012

No wage drift

According to the Federal Statistical Office, actual monthly gross wages and salaries increased by 2.6% in 2012. Inflation was 2% in 2012. As a consequence real average collectively agreed basic wages increased by 0.7% in 2012 and real actual monthly gross wages by 0.6%. With collectively agreed and actual wages increasing by about the same margin there was no substantial wage drift in 2012.

Gender pay gap

A considerable gap in average earnings continues to exist between men and women in Germany. The figure stood at 23% in 2011 according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office. However, no special provisions to tackle wage discrimination were included in the collective agreements concluded in 2012.

Disputes and prominent bargaining rounds

Once again there were a number of instances of strike action during the collective bargaining process in 2012. As in previous years most of the disputes concerned company-level agreements in the private service sector.

The executive of the United Services Union (ver.di) had to deal with more than 180 incidents of industrial action. It was 170 in 2011. The most significant stoppages in terms of employee participation took place in the course of several waves of warning strikes during the 2012 bargaining round in the metalworking industry. The German metalworkers’ union IG Metall said 800,000 people took part in these stoppages across more than 3,000 businesses.

Unprecedented negotiations in metalworking were connected to parallel negotiations over pay for temporary agency workers hired out to the industry (DE1206019I). In order to tackle these negotiations, temporary agency work employers established a Collective Bargaining Association for Temporary Agency Work Employers (VGZ).

In line with the 2012 general pay settlement in metalworking, IG Metall and VGZ then agreed to a wage adjustment for temporary agency staff working in the metal industry to reduce the wage gap between permanent staff and agency workers. Supplements to be paid to agency workers will increase the longer they are employed in a metalworking company.

Heiner Dribbusch, Institute of Economic and Social Research, WSI

Il-Eurofound jirrakkomanda li din il-pubblikazzjoni tiġi kkwotata kif ġej.

Eurofound (2013), Report assesses 2012 bargaining round, article.