Employment is currently the big issue in the European Union. This report describes the recent initiatives known as PECs (pacts for employment and competitiveness) which are a combination of three main elements: competitiveness, employment and partnership.
On 25 August 1997, the information technology company, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG (SNI), a subsidiary of the German electronic and technology conglomerate Siemens AG, announced the reorganisation of its loss-making product service division. It confirmed the setting up of five new service
On 12 August 2997, the Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) served notice on the Berlin Senate, the Berlin city and the state government, to drop the practice whereby public sector contracts for projects such as road-building are only given to companies which declare that they pay wages
The German "model" of industrial relations is often characterised by its encompassing organisations on both sides of the labour market and its relatively centralised industry-level collective bargaining system.
According to constitutional law, the special category of employees known as Beamte, or career public servants [1], are individuals who are appointed by the state, a municipality or other legal persons under public law to the career public service relationship [2] by sovereign act. They have the
In July 1997, the German subsidiary of the US-based computer manufacturer Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) struck a new company collective agreement with the metalworkers' trade union Industriegewerkschaft Metall (IG Metall), and a new works agreement with the DEC works council. The company
On 15 July 1997, the collective bargaining parties in the east German construction industry, the construction union IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt (IG BAU) and the two employers' associations, Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie (HDB) and Zentralverband des Deutschen Baugewerbes (ZDB), signed an
The German system of labour courts [1] is a system of jurisdiction for hearing disputes under labour law. Whether a case is dealt with by the labour courts is determined by the Labour Courts Act (Arbeitsgerichtsgesetz). It is a three-tier system, with first-instance Labour Courts, Land Labour Courts
Between 12 May and 16 May 1997, transport trade unions throughout Europe organised boycotts, strikes and demonstrations during the European week of action against substandard and flag of convenience (FOC) shipping. Coordinated by the London based International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)
On 3 March 1997, the Hanover regional branch of the metalworkers' trade union Industriegewerkschaft Metall (IG Metall) and the management of PPS Personal-, Produktions- und Servicegesellschaft mbH, Salzgitter, concluded a company agreement on partial retirement - the first such agreement in the
On 21 May 1997, after five bargaining rounds, the miners' trade union Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau und Energie (IGBE), the salaried employees' union Deutsche Angestelltengewerkschaft (DAG) and the Unternehmensverband Ruhrbergbau (UVR) employers' association for the hard-coal mining industry in