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21 April, 2008
On 15-16 April, ICEM German affiliate IGBCE and the BAVC Chemical Industry Association came to 2008 and 2009 wage terms for some 550,000 chemical workers. The union achieved desirable pay gains, but more importantly, posted enhancements to future training opportunities for young workers, as well as a flexible, part-time work arrangement for older workers.
The agreement, which came during the second round of national industry talks, contains a pay increase of 4.4%, retroactive to either 1 March or 1 April, or effective 1 May, depending on the respective IGBCE region. That extends for 13 months. Then, effective in 2009 for 12 months, chemical industry workers won a 3.3% pay raise.
Additionally, on 1 July 2008, workers will realize a one-off payment of 13 times 0.5% of their monthly wage. That will be determined by workers and managers in individual companies, depending on a firm’s profitability. The agreement covers some 19,000 German chemical companies.
IGBCE Head of Collective Bargaining Werner Bischoff
“The 2008 chemical accord has set a milestone,” stated IGBCE Head of Collective Bargaining Werner Bischoff. He said that not only has the number of training places for young workers in chemicals been dramatically increased in this set of talks, but an “occupational bridge” has been created through the flexible work scheme. It replaces one due to expire next year.
The new arrangement, however, is more extensive. A fund will be established, on 1 January 2010, that will be paid for by employers, with employee payments added supplementary. The fund, to be governed by works councils, will be used for flexible transition to retirement, including part-time work, partial pension benefits, health incentives, and added insurance for inability to work, to name just a few of the benefits.
In 2003, IGBCE and BAVC first agreed to create future training opportunities for young workers. In last year’s negotiations, for 2007 and 2008, the parties agreed to fund training places for 16,800 young workers in the chemicals sector. In last week’s concluding talks, agreement was reached to increased that to 18,200 for 2009 and 2010.
“The strong increase in incomes corresponds to the current inflation situation and we met our goal – a higher pay raise than in 2007,” said Bischoff. “But the success story of this collective agreement is that ‘Training for the Future’ has been updated, and we have succeeded in achieving a full flexible transition to retirement.”