The railway has invited the GDL to negotiations again tomorrow. The company did not respond to the union’s request to submit a new offer in writing. The GDL had set a deadline of 6 p.m. for this.
Deutsche Bahn (DB) has once again invited the train drivers’ union GDL to collective bargaining. “We are convinced that we will only be able to reach an agreement through dialogue at the negotiating table,” said DB Human Resources Director Martin Seiler.
The company did not respond to GDL’s request to submit an improved offer before new discussions. In this “very advanced phase of the negotiations, switching to a written exchange of offers and answers” is “not productive”.
GDL boss Claus Weselsky has not yet commented. He had asked the railway to submit a written offer by 6 p.m. today. Only then would the union be ready for new negotiations.
Offer formal arbitration
The DB has “declared its willingness several times in the past few days to complete the negotiations on the basis of the overall package proposed by the moderators,” according to the company’s press release. This also includes a 36-hour week with full salary compensation.
If the GDL does not want to take this route, the DB is also prepared to enter into formal arbitration. “In doing so, we underline our serious desire to reach a collective agreement as soon as possible for the benefit of our employees and our customers,” said Seiler.
Arbitration would mean using one or two people as neutral third parties to reach a collective bargaining agreement. Unlike the moderators already in place, arbitrators shape the conduct of the negotiations according to the process and content. In addition, at the end of an arbitration there is an arbitrator’s decision if the collective bargaining parties have not been able to reach an amicable agreement.
Massive criticism of Weselsky
The railway had already invited the GDL “to negotiate based on the moderators’ overall proposal”. In the invitation letter, the railway made it clear that it was not true that the company had rejected the intermediaries’ suggestion to shorten weekly working hours. Rather, they agreed on February 26th to “go beyond our pain threshold and to complete the negotiations on the basis of the moderators’ overall proposal.”
The mediators had proposed a reduction in weekly working hours in two stages from 38 to 36 hours with full wage compensation by 2028. GDL boss Claus Weselsky initially presented the offer as less favorable for the GDL than it actually was. He then initially admitted a “mistake in thinking,” and a little later he spoke Deutschlandfunk from a “slip of the tongue.” In the daily topics he rejected criticism.
Nevertheless, Weselsky has been criticized even more since then. Also from politics: Transport Minister Volker Wissing suspected ARD interviewthat “reasons to strike” were being sought here.