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In the year Corona 2020, tariff policy will also be dominated by the pandemic. Trade unions and employers have to react flexibly to find jobs. This can be achieved with different strategies.
By Steffi Clodius, tagesschau.de
A round of collective bargaining is generally imagined as follows: representatives of employers and unions meet, cannot agree, there are warning strikes; A second, third and, if necessary, fourth round of negotiations follows, preferably until late at night, and at the end the negotiators stand with haggard faces in front of the microphones of the assembled press and explain why the respective side has reached the maximum. A long cherished and cultivated ritual in the German welfare state.
But in the days of Corona, everything is different. Some industries are going through a deep crisis through no fault of their own; other branches benefit and prosper; And thanks to the pandemic, some areas are suddenly and finally experiencing the recognition they should have long been entitled to. All this is also reflected in the tariff policy.
At first everything is still normal
On February 24, the hotel and catering industry in Saxony agreed to a new collective agreement: gradually increasing wages and salaries by 3.6 and 3.1 percent, respectively, over a 24-month period. Then, on March 3, the agreement was signed on the catering fee area system, a typical low-wage industry, in which many employees only receive minimum wage. The agreement provides for a gradual and significant increase in wages and salaries by almost 28 percent and lasts for 55 months until mid-2024. Normal collective bargaining processes. But less than a month later, the pandemic accelerates and the hospitality and catering industry sinks deep into crisis.
A little later, on March 19, a day after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s well-known Crown speech, the collective bargaining partners of the metal and electrical industry in North Rhine-Westphalia agree to re-enforce the agreement group previously terminated, until the end of the year. Volkswagen reaches a similar agreement with its employees on April 9. In other words: there will be no new round of collective bargaining in the Corona year.
The conclusion is that real wages will increase slightly
The bottom line is that many industries have suspended upcoming collective bargaining negotiations or only reached an agreement with worker representatives on minor wage increases, explains Thorsten Schulten, a collective bargaining expert at the Institute of Economic and Social Sciences (WSI). at Hans-Böckler- Foundation, endowment. Because in 2019 the average salary increase was 2.6 percent, and therefore it was comparatively strong. Increases completed in the first half of 2020 averaged 1.2 percent.
If you add the two together, there is still a nominal increase of 2.1 percent, according to Schulten. And since consumer prices increased only minimally in the first half of the year due to the low rate of inflation, real wages still grew 0.9 percent. In general, employees have slightly more money available on average in Germany, Corona notwithstanding.
Flexible solutions instead of new collective agreements
Forgoing new rounds of collective bargaining in the context of the pandemic does not mean that everything has remained the same for employees. Because many industries have reacted flexibly and are adapting to circumstances, especially in the form of short-time labor regulations. In the course of the crisis, according to the Federal Employment Agency (BA), more companies registered part-time work than ever in the history of the Federal Republic. In April and May there were already more than six million short-time workers.
So that the loss of employee income is not too great, many companies have agreed with their employees to increase the severance pay under collective agreements, labor agreements or individual contracts. In some sectors, collective bargaining rules even existed before the crisis. As a result, the reduced-time allowance for many employees is close to net pay.
Employees benefit from collective agreements
Here it also shows how profitable the collective agreement is for employees, as the expert Schulten explains. In June, 54 percent of employees in companies subject to collective agreements would have benefited from complementary regulation, but only 31 percent in companies without collective agreements.
Employees in the low-wage sector are also worse off: employees with a net income of more than 1,500 euros per month benefit from only 33 percent of part-time work regulations, while for employees with salaries higher is on average almost half. According to Schulten, this has to do with the fact that there is much less collective bargaining in the low-wage sector.
Minimum wage is rising less quickly due to Corona
The crisis has not left the issue of minimum wages without problems either. According to the WSI, the minimum wage should have taken a significant step towards twelve euros an hour due to socio-political considerations. But this goal, which now has the support of a broad political spectrum, was again unfocused due to the crisis.
At the end of June, the so-called minimum wage commission issued a recommendation: according to this, the minimum wage should rise in several steps to 10.45 euros by mid-2022, and thus remain well below twelve euros, which, according to Schulten, is a prerequisite for at least the employees. with a full-time job you can generate a reasonable and poverty-proof income.
Safe jobs instead of more money
In many industries, employee representatives have recognized that job security in the Corona crisis must take precedence over revenue growth. In recent months, IG Metall, in particular, has been a strong advocate for avoiding layoffs or facility closures through temporary or permanent reductions in working hours, sometimes without compensation.
Such deals were made primarily in the automotive and supplier industries, as this sector is already in a deep process of transformation, in addition to the crown-related economic crisis, and disruptions and restructurings are more likely there than elsewhere. other areas.
Tariff rounds with the “crisis winners”
But there are also the industries that have not been affected by the crisis or are even flourishing. These include, for example, supermarkets and pharmacies, retail and online delivery services. According to Schulten, it is to be expected that the rounds of collective bargaining will start as planned and that notable pay increases will be negotiated. The same applies to industries that have been upgraded since Corona for the “systemically relevant” attribute, which acts as a quality characteristic: the healthcare and care sector, but also the building cleaning industry.
Since these professions are often characterized by precarious employment relationships, collective agreements with notable improvements for employees would be desirable: it will demonstrate “whether many of the professional groups applauded as systemically relevant under Corona conditions will now also receive appropriate material recognition” Schulten said.
“Efficient and flexible system”
In general, in the difficult conditions of the crisis, the German federal tariff system has proven to be flexible and efficient, sums up tariff expert Schulten. It is capable of “giving differentiated responses to the different challenges of different industries”. Employees and employers alike benefit from this.
