More money in two stages – to deal with the 3,8 Million employees of the German metal- and electrical industry home soon. In the fifth round of collective bargaining, they agreed on a total 4,8 Percent more money. Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa
Cologne / Frankfurt (dpa) – round 3,8 Million employees of the German metal- and electrical industry received by the end of next year significant increases in real wages. Employers and IG Metall have made a pilot agreement for the tariff area North Rhine-Westphalia at night.
The agreement is to be transferred to other regions. The agreement includes more money in two stages and a lump-sum payment. The retroactively from 1. Contract April in force initially contains a single payment of 150 Euro for the three months to June zero. After that engages the 1. July, the first stage of 2,8 Percent.
The second stage of 2,0 Percent takes effect with the 1. April 2017 until the end of. With currently almost non-existent inflation, the increase proposed by positively on the purse of employees.
IG Metall and employers also agreed to exceptions for economically weaker companies, as both sides rushed mitt. Thus, the one-time payment can be completely eliminated or moved. The second tariff level could fall three months later in a particular case. but upward, shall not then as far council and businesses, but trade union and employers' association negotiate on the spot and see a result within a month. The collective agreement has a term of 21 Months to the end 2017.
The conclusion of North Rhine-Westphalia is to be transferred to the remaining tariff zones. Now with the agreement reached an escalation of the labor dispute was averted after Pentecost. IG Metall had threatened to extend the industrial action next week, should there be in the negotiations in Cologne no rapprochement.
Both sides evaluated the results positively. "This is a conclusion of a pilot nature. The workers get a substantial increase in real incomes and a fair share in the economic success ", declared the first chairman of IG Metall, Jörg Hofmann.
The NRW-employer president and negotiator Arndt Kirchhoff emphasized the special rules for weaker companies. The conclusion was a "door opener for a re-entry into the innovative tariff policy." The conclusion was a solid triad of acceptable wage increase, operational flexibility and long term, said total Metall leader Rainer Dulger. The collective bargaining agreements of the companies could be strengthened.
Because the first time negotiated for six years differentiation clauses for economically weaker companies in the current financial statements is but "much more digestible" than its predecessors in recent years. After all the metal calculations a company can have its burden to carry the tariff increase 10 lower percent, but only after successful negotiations with the union at the local level. With this differentiation, a significantly lower burden resulting, said Dulger.
The collective bargaining agreement is nevertheless burden the company with additional labor costs in the billions. At the end of the term will the annual wage bill from the current 230 Billion euros around more 10 Be billion euro rose, said Dulger. "Once again, we had to go to the limits of the carrying capacity of the company. For the future I would like to see more wage restraint on the part of the union. "
When mechanical engineering association VDMA wage increases came to no good. "In particular for our export-oriented companies, the outlook is far from rosy. Wage increases contribute to the further deepening of our competitive situation ", said VDMA Managing Director Thilo Brodtmann. He praised the proposed differentiation clauses, which allowed the companies, to stretch the additional burdens. "We encourage our members to, to use this facility.

GERMAN PRESS AGENCY
FRIDAY, 13. MAY 2016 13:17 GMT
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