Read this article in:
4 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 12/2000
Pay rises are combined with job creation measures in the new collective agreement for Germany's 30,000 rubber industry workers.
This is the first sectoral agreement reached this year by the IG BCE union, which covers a wide range of process, chemical, mining and energy industries. The rubber sector deal is a "first benchmark for the 2000 bargaining round," emphasised Werner Bischoff, IG BCE's head of collective bargaining.
Employment-boosting measures are an important part of the new agreement, in line with the current "Alliance For Jobs" between unions, employers and Germany's social democrat/environmentalist federal government.
For example, improvements to early retirement provisions will mean that rubber workers aged 55 and above can opt to work half-time while continuing to be paid at least 85 percent of their last full-time net wage. For workers on a three-shift roster, the corresponding figure will be 95 percent.
At the same time, a new employment promotion fund to be administered jointly by the employers and the union will help to finance early retirement by rubber workers. Payments from the fund will virtually eliminate the net financial difference between retirement at age 60 and retirement at the legal age of 65.
"We have lived up to our responsibilities and made our contribution to the success of the Alliance for Jobs," Bischoff said.
On wages, the agreement provides an overall increase of 2.9 percent in Western Germany, effective from 1 October this year until at least 31 October 2001. Workers will pay 0.4 percent of the increase into the employment promotion fund. In Eastern Germany, the increase will be 3.2 percent, effective from 1 March 2001 for one year. Here too, 0.4 percent of the pay rise will go into the employment promotion fund.
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
This is the first sectoral agreement reached this year by the IG BCE union, which covers a wide range of process, chemical, mining and energy industries. The rubber sector deal is a "first benchmark for the 2000 bargaining round," emphasised Werner Bischoff, IG BCE's head of collective bargaining.
Employment-boosting measures are an important part of the new agreement, in line with the current "Alliance For Jobs" between unions, employers and Germany's social democrat/environmentalist federal government.
For example, improvements to early retirement provisions will mean that rubber workers aged 55 and above can opt to work half-time while continuing to be paid at least 85 percent of their last full-time net wage. For workers on a three-shift roster, the corresponding figure will be 95 percent.
At the same time, a new employment promotion fund to be administered jointly by the employers and the union will help to finance early retirement by rubber workers. Payments from the fund will virtually eliminate the net financial difference between retirement at age 60 and retirement at the legal age of 65.
"We have lived up to our responsibilities and made our contribution to the success of the Alliance for Jobs," Bischoff said.
On wages, the agreement provides an overall increase of 2.9 percent in Western Germany, effective from 1 October this year until at least 31 October 2001. Workers will pay 0.4 percent of the increase into the employment promotion fund. In Eastern Germany, the increase will be 3.2 percent, effective from 1 March 2001 for one year. Here too, 0.4 percent of the pay rise will go into the employment promotion fund.
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).