Schulten, Thorsten

On 21 June 1999, the temporary employment agency Adecco Personaldienstleistungen GmbH and a bargaining cartel of six trade unions signed a "collective agreement on the hiring-out of labour on the occasion of the EXPO 2000 world exhibition" (Tarifvertrag zur Arbeitnehmerüberlassung anläßlich der Weltausstellung EXPO 2000 [1]).The unions involved were the IG Metall metalworkers' union, the Food and Restaurants Workers' Union (Gewerkschaft Nahrung Genuß Gaststätten, NGG), the Building, Agriculture and Environmental Union (IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt), the Trading, Banking and Insurance Union (Gewerkschaft Handel Banken und Versicherungen, HBV), the Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union (Gewerkschaft Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr, ÖTV) and the German White-Collar Workers' Union (Deutsche Angestellten-Gewerkschaft, DAG) The agreement will cover approximately about 7,000 employees who will be recruited by Adecco in order to work at the EXPO 2000 exhibition, which will take place in Hanover from 1 June until 31 October 2000. Adecco is the exclusive provider of personnel services to EXPO 2000 Hannover GmbH, the company which is responsible for the overall organisation of the world exhibition. [1] http://www.igmetall.de/homepages/bezirk-hannover/expo-tarifvertrag.html

On 5-6 February 1999, the Mining, Chemical and Energy Union (IG Bergbau Chemie Energie, IG BCE) held a conference in Hanover, bringing together around 270 local union members in order to evaluate recent developments in German collective bargaining. The contributions to the conference, which were subsequently published by the union, give a broad overview of the experiences in IG BCE-related sectors (/Allgemeine Arbeitsbedingungen - tarifliche Bindung oder betriebliche Gestaltung. Protokoll der Fachtagung in Hannover am 5/6 Februar 1999/, IG BCE (ed)).

On 1 June 1999, the Mining, Chemicals and Energy Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau,Chemie, Energie, IG BCE) and the German Federation of Chemicals Employers' Associations (Bundesarbeitgeberverband Chemie, BAVC) signed a pilot agreement for the collective bargaining district of Nordrhein. The new agreement provides employees with a flat-rate payment of DEM 200 in respect of May 1999 and a 3% increase in remuneration from June 1999. Vocational trainees will receive no proportional wage increase, but a flat-rate payment of DEM 200. The agreement runs for 13 months.

On 6 June 1999, in discussions chaired by the Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, the German federal government and the collective bargaining parties in the construction industry - the German Building, Agriculture and Environmental Union (IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt, IG BAU) and the employers' associations, Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie (HDB) and Zentralverband des Deutschen Baugewerbes (ZDB) - reached an agreement on the principles of a new regulation of the bad-weather allowance (Schlechtwettergeld).

On 6 May 1999 the Bundesverband Druck employers' association and the Media and Printing Union (IG Medien) signed a new nationwide collective agreement for blue-collar workers in the German printing industry. The new agreement provides for a 3.3% increase in wages and vocational training payments from April 1999, and has a duration of 12 months. Employees in lower wage groups will receive a flat-rate payment of DEM 135 for the month of April 1999, which is somewhat higher than the proportional wage increase of 3.3%.

A recent study by the Cologne Institute of Business Research (Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln, IW) and the Institute for Employment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung der Bundesanstalt für Arbeit, IAB) published in May 1999 provides new figures on collective bargaining coverage in Germany ("Tarifbindung im Wandel", S Kohaut and C Schnabel, in /iw-trends/ 2/99). In contrast to previous analyses (DE9902196F [1]), the new study covers all branches of the economy, including the public sector, and for the first time it also examines the coverage rates of company agreements. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined-industrial-relations/private-sector-collective-bargaining-coverage-analysed

On 9 April 1999, the German Collective Agreement Act (Tarifvertragsgesetz [1]) celebrated its 50th anniversary. The legislation was enacted on 9 April 1949 by the common Economic Council for the British and American occupation zones of post-war Germany. Since the Act was adopted before the official foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) there was a transition period before it became valid for the whole territory of the FRG (including the former French occupation zone) in 1953. [1] http://www.boeckler.de/wsi/tarchiv/iwl/tvg.htm

On 20 April 1999 the general secretary of the Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation affiliated to France's CFDT trade union confederation (Fédération Chimie-Énergie-CFDT, FCE-CFDT), Jacques Khéliff, and the president of the German Mining, Chemical and Energy Union (IG Bergbau Chemie Energie, IG BCE), Hubertus Schmoldt, signed a new "Franco-German cooperation agreement". The two unions have long experience of bilateral cooperation, which recently became very much intensified because of the announcement of the merger of the German-based pharmaceuticals group, Hoechst, and its French-owned counterpart, Rhône-Poulenc (FR9812146F [1]). [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined/french-and-german-unions-respond-to-hoechstrhne-poulenc-merger

On 6 March 1999, the minority Christian Metalworkers' Union (Christliche Gewerkschaft Metall, CGM) and the management of Jenoptik AG signed new company agreements (Haustarifverträge) for about 800 employees at the company's east German sites in Jena. Emerging from the old Carl Zeiss firm, Jenoptik AG is today the largest east German technology corporation and operates in the fields of clean systems, telecommunications and photonics technologies. The new CGM company agreements supersede previous company agreements concluded with IG Metall, the main metalworkers' trade union, in 1996, after the company had left the east German metalworking employers' association and thereby refused to be covered by the relevant branch-level collective agreements.

In the light of modern work organisation in many industries, the traditional distinction between blue-collar worker [1] s (Arbeiter) and white-collar worker [2] s (Angestellte) is becoming more and more anachronistic. Although the German trade unions have long argued for abolition of the distinction, different pay agreements still exist for blue- and white-collar workers in many collective bargaining areas. Of the "classic" manufacturing sectors, only in the chemicals industry have joint pay agreements been concluded since 1988. In metalworking, a number of pioneering companies introduced joint pay and grading systems some time ago - the machine-building company Vögele was the first to sign a joint pay agreement in 1983 - but the sectoral bargaining parties have been negotiating on the modernisation of pay and grading structures since the early 1990s, without being able to conclude an agreement so far. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/manual-worker-4 [2] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/white-collar-worker-4