7 November, 2011
Following a full year of negotiations, ICEM German affiliate IGBCE and the Northeastern Chemical Employers Association, or AGV Nordostchemie, reached terms on a trendsetting work-time agreement in Germany’s eastern states.
On 2 November, the social partners announced completion of a collective agreement that reduces work-time for both younger and older staff, as well as further harmonizing pay and other remuneration with chemical workers in western Germany. The social contract covers 36,000 employees at some 130 companies operating in the five eastern states.
The key component is creation in 2013 of a monetary fund that employers will subsidize through 2.5% of their total annual payrolls, which will initially come to €30 million. It will be used to maintain wage levels for older workers, age 60 and above, who choose to work one less day every other week. For shift workers of the same age, they have the option to work one day less per week.
IGBCE Chief Negotiator Peter Hausmann
The fund will also work for younger workers in order for them to tend to family and child care responsibilities. Their normal 40-hour work week in the east will be reduced by 3.5 hours with a minimal pay cut, but not proportional to the time off. In the chemicals sector in western states, the work week is 37.5 hours and the agreement is seen as harmonizing working hours without loss of pay.
It is also seen as a means to retain skilled workers in eastern chemical enterprises, particularly with 70% of eastern workers between the ages of 44 and 59. The agreement bridges the demographic divide by rewarding older workers with sector knowledge and experience, specifically with the statutory retirement age expected to increase upwards from 65. The agreement also creates a “work-time bank” that allows staff to accumulate extra hours.
“We have agreed on a work-time model that provides a collective response to demographic changes,” said IGBCE Chief Negotiator Peter Hausmann. “For employees with children or dependents, for shift workers and for our older colleagues, this creates significant work-life opportunities.”
And IGBCE Northeast Regional Director Petra Reinhold-Knape said, “We put in place a very innovative work-time model,” adding the agreement will bring to parity the remaining differences between the east and west by “putting more money in the pockets” of eastern chemical workers.
That was achieved by lifting eastern workers’ 13th month Christmas salary payment in two stages to match the 95% that western workers get by 2014. Workers in the east now receive 65% for the 13th month.
As well, pay increases for job levels will be harmonised between east and west. Currently, the wage increases within each level are different, with those in the west 8% higher. Next year, that divide will be halved, with parity coming in 2014, the time when IGBCE and AGV Nordostchemie enter the next round of bargaining.