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The 50-hour walkout on the railways is initially off the table after a court settlement. But the collective bargaining conflict with the EVG is far from resolved. Further warning strikes are possible.
First of all, millions of travelers need to breathe a sigh of relief. Because after the cancellation of the 50-hour strike by Deutsche Bahn (DB), only a few train connections are canceled. On Saturday, DB and the railway and transport union (EVG) agreed to a settlement by the labor court in Frankfurt. The group had previously submitted an urgent application to avert the warning strike with an injunction.
Railway operations “started largely according to plan” on Monday morning, so that around 90 percent of the regularly scheduled trains would run, DB said. The S- and regional train traffic is largely normal. From Tuesday, all ICE and IC trains should be back on the road as planned.
Warning strikes at private railways
However, the strike has only been canceled for Deutsche Bahn. That is why there are still restrictions in many places. Since the end of February, the EVG has also been negotiating new wage agreements with around 50 of Deutsche Bahn’s competitors. From the union’s point of view, talks with most of these companies are not progressing significantly.
That is why many private companies are still on strike: in Munich, for example, the Bavarian Oberlandbahn, in Brandenburg the East German Railway, in Hesse the Odenwaldbahn and in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt the operator Abellio is affected.
Minimum wage is the sticking point
Despite the court settlement, warning strikes could also occur again at Deutsche Bahn. A sticking point in the ongoing collective bargaining conflict is the statutory minimum wage of twelve euros, which around 2,000 employees currently only receive in the form of allowances. Because shortly before the introduction of the statutory minimum wage on October 1, 2022, the EVG had agreed with Deutsche Bahn that an hourly wage of 12.62 euros would be granted temporarily for the lowest income groups. Employees receive this in the form of bonuses.
This construct should apply until the conclusion of the currently negotiated collective agreement. The EVG now demanded that the statutory minimum wage of twelve euros be anchored as a base in the tariff tables before there are negotiations on general salary increases. This means that all further wage increases should be added to the statutory minimum wage of twelve euros.
It was therefore emphasized in court that future negotiation results will also apply in full to employees in the area close to the minimum wage. But what these wage increases will look like has yet to be negotiated.
Lower income groups strengthen
Initially, Deutsche Bahn did not want to meet any preconditions before the actual negotiations. But last Friday, the group agreed to include the minimum wage in the tariff tables in advance, even if the dispute only affects around one percent of the people for whom negotiations are taking place. Nevertheless, this point is crucial for the union: It wants to strengthen employees with low wages disproportionately, for example with a view to inflation.
This is also reflected in the further demands of the EVG: the union wants to achieve at least 650 euros more per month for the employees of the 50 railway companies. She demands twelve percent for upper income earners. The current bargaining round affects 230,000 employees, 180,000 of whom work for Deutsche Bahn.
Dispute about the terms
Deutsche Bahn recently offered tax and duty-free one-off payments totaling 2,850 euros. In addition, according to the company’s offer, lower and middle income groups should increase by ten percent, and upper income groups by eight percent.
The EVG and Deutsche Bahn are also arguing about the term of the new collective agreement. While the EVG is demanding that a new collective agreement only runs for twelve months in order to be able to act more quickly in the future, Deutsche Bahn wants to set the term to 27 months so that it does not have to negotiate again next year.
Further collective bargaining – also further strikes?
So now it is time for new negotiations again, and these should now proceed quickly and constructively, with the aim of a speedy conclusion, it said. It is still unclear when the collective bargaining parties will sit down again. The next regular round of negotiations is scheduled for April 23/24. scheduled for May; However, it is also conceivable that negotiations will take place at an earlier point in time.
Whether there will be another strike depends on the peace between the two parties. The EVG stated that under certain circumstances it would paralyze train traffic again. After the strike was suspended, she called on Deutsche Bahn to “immediately enter into negotiations with us on the subject of the minimum wage”. If the railways “break their word, we will call for a strike again,” their spokesman warned at the same time. This is “possible and permissible”.
Reorganize 50,000 train journeys
The warning strike was supposed to start on Sunday evening. After the cancellation on Saturday evening, the railway began to organize the return to normal service. “For the first time, rail operations had to be reorganized from shutting down to ramping up within 24 hours,” the company said.
For this purpose, around 50,000 train journeys alone in long-distance and local transport as well as the associated shift and deployment plans would be rescheduled. Vehicles would have to be rescheduled and some brought to new departure points.