Deutsche Bahn and the train drivers’ union GDL have agreed on a collective agreement. “We have an exhausting week behind us,” said GDL boss Weselsky in a joint press conference with Deutsche Bahn HR director Martin Seiler.
The agreement provides for a 3.3 percent increase in salaries over a period of 32 months. In December 2021, salaries will be increased by 1.5 percent and in March 2023 by another 1.8 percent. In addition, all employees receive a Corona allowance twice. In December 2021 there are 300, 400 or 600 euros, depending on the income group. Then in March 2022 400 euros for all employees.
An amicable solution was also found for old-age provision. The GDL therefore agreed to the planned restructuring of the company pension scheme; The previous system of the additional pension will only be continued for existing employees from 2022, it said. Those employees who join the company by the end of this year will still receive the previous conditions.
“The Gordian knot has been cut. We have reached a difficult compromise,” said Bahn Personnel Director Seiler. The bridge between employees and employers as well as the railway customers was successful. With this deal, the railway could stay on course.
The Prime Ministers of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, Stephan Weil (SPD) and Daniel Günther (CDU), who also took part in the press conference, had taken on a kind of mediation role and helped to pacify the conflict. Weselsky thanked the two politicians for their mediation. “The past ten days have been worth it,” said Günther. The first conversation was a bit bumpy, but then the conversations were characterized by willingness to negotiate and solution-oriented. Perhaps the “North German composure of two prime ministers” was a little helpful, said Günther. “We had an interest far beyond Deutsche Bahn in resolving this very long collective bargaining conflict,” said Weil. Both tariff partners would have “pulled together”, but in the end “there are only winners here today”.
Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer welcomed the agreement in the wage dispute between Deutsche Bahn and the train drivers’ union GDL. The result is and is a “relief for millions of rail customers and also for the German economy,” said the CSU politician.
The railway had met the train drivers on the weekend and had promised an additional remuneration component. The GDL ended its third and so far longest strike in this collective bargaining round on Tuesday last week. The group had previously tried unsuccessfully to have the strike outlawed. Last week the union threatened to start preparing for the next labor dispute earlier this week if corporate management did not submit an improved offer by then.
For the first time, the GDL is also concluding collective agreements for employees in workshops and administration in addition to train personnel, but not for the infrastructure. Both sides have also agreed on a procedure to determine which union has the majority in the respective railway companies. According to the Unified Collective Bargaining Act, this depends on which collective bargaining agreement is applied. The GDL has the majority in 16 of the approximately 300 railway companies, in 71 companies this has yet to be determined.
There could be renegotiations with the rival union
However, the collective bargaining dispute may not be finally over yet. The larger rail union EVG announced on Thursday that it would present the company with a catalog of demands. “We are preparing for negotiations, but also for measures including industrial action,” said EVG boss Klaus-Dieter Hommel. The EVG had already reached an agreement with Deutsche Bahn last year; However, it includes a special right of termination in the event that another union gets more out of it. That is the case now.
Meanwhile, Deutsche Bahn is hoping for a speedy understanding with the EVG. “We will see to it that if there is a discrepancy that it is transferred,” said Bahnvorstand Seiler. The EVG showed great solidarity in the middle of the Corona crisis in 2020. “That is why it is important to me that no members of the TOE are in any way worse off or have disadvantages.”
GDL boss Weselsky, whose union is in competition, commented critically: “We spend millions, go on strike, let ourselves be insulted, and at the end of the day we can watch how the collective bargaining agreement is carried out after the others.”