Introduction of the 35-hour week with full wage compensation, nine percent more wages, one day more vacation, a special payment of 3000 euros per year from 2025, a subsidy for the job ticket, night bonuses from 8 p.m., an additional five days off work to look after a sick teenager – that are just some of the points that the management of the Waldkliniken Eisenberg in Thuringia recently agreed with the Verdi trade union. The special feature: This collective agreement has been in effect since July – and only for Verdi members. “From a purely legal point of view, collective agreements are only valid for union members and employers also apply the regulations to all other employees. In this case it’s different – it’s in our interest and of pioneering importance nationwide,” says Norbert Reuter, head of the collective bargaining policy department at Verdi.
“This is the only way to counteract the shortage of skilled workers”
The effect is clear: Before the conclusion there were hardly any members in the orthopedic specialist clinic in Thuringia, meanwhile almost half of the 740 employees have joined Verdi. The forest clinics are also satisfied. “This is the only way to counteract the shortage of skilled workers,” says Managing Director David-Ruben Thies. On the one hand, the agreed benefits in the health sector are exceptional and therefore an argument when recruiting new employees. On the other hand, the employer saves additional costs for those who do not belong to Verdi. The union, in turn, gains new members in an industry in which only a minority is organized in an interest group.
While a full collective agreement is rather unusual for union members only, individual additional benefits have long been possible for them in collective agreements. In most cases, however, employers speak out against so-called advantage regulations in order not to drive unions into members. At the industrial union BCE (construction, chemicals, energy), five percent of the collective agreements contain differentiation regulations in which members receive additional days off or bonus wage payments, for example. In the future, such regulations will be used more intensively. “In the chemical industry, 80 percent of employees are organized and many of them will soon retire. In order to maintain this percentage, we have to do something to reach more young people. Benefit regulations can help. So far, however, chemical employers have resisted it.” , says IG BCE spokesman Lars Ruzic.
A one-time payment of 600 euros in Cottbus
Rubber and energy companies are more likely to do so. For example, a one-time payment of 600 euros was recently negotiated at Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG from Cottbus only for IG BCE members. Ruzic cannot say whether more employees at Leag have joined the union as a result – but in general it is easier to convince employees to join with such agreements.
In 15 percent of the Verdi collective agreements there are benefit regulations – mostly in so-called in-house collective agreements with companies that do not belong to any employers’ association. They only apply to the respective company. At the largest German operator of dialysis centers KfH (Board of Trustees for Home Dialysis), a bonus payment of 250 euros was agreed for Verdi members among the 6400 employees for 2022. At the beginning of this year they received an additional 250 euros, and in July they could choose between 375 euros as a bonus or an additional day off.
Since last year, Verdi members have been earning an extra 50 euros a month at the German Employee Academy. In addition to bonus payments, the service trade union has agreed with other employers on benefits for its members in the form of vouchers, job tickets, faster advancement within the salary groups, supplements to company pension schemes or capital-forming benefits, more vacation days, days off for education or health, and recreation allowances.
The question of how high the benefits may be is not legally clear – according to the Federal Labor Court (BAG), the scope must be so limited that there is actually no compulsion to join the union. According to a ruling by the Higher Labor Court in Hamm, additional payments amounting to two annual membership fees to the trade union are possible. The contribution is usually one percent of the annual salary.
In the past, employers have occasionally bought their consent to benefit restrictions with benefit regulations. The ailing Real department store chain negotiated with Verdi in 2017 that employees would waive 60 percent of their Christmas and holiday pay – in return, Verdi members would receive a one percent increase in gross annual salary.
IG BCE spokesman Ruzic emphasizes another aspect: “The number of companies that do not belong to an employers’ association and do not pay employees according to collective agreements is growing. We only strengthen the collective agreement if we have enough members ourselves.” The IG BCE currently has 580,000 members, with a slight downward trend.
49 percent of employees have no collective agreement
According to calculations by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research of the Federal Employment Agency, 49 percent of employees in Germany had no collective agreement last year. 41 percent of the employees were paid according to a collective agreement and ten percent according to an in-house collective agreement. In East Germany 55 percent of employees are without a collective agreement, in West Germany 48 percent, these numbers have been increasing for years. There are clear differences between the economic sectors: in public administration, almost all employees are covered by a collective agreement, while in agriculture, in transport and warehousing, as well as in wholesale and retail trade, most employees are not paid according to collective agreements. According to an EU directive on adequate minimum wages, member states with collective bargaining coverage of less than 80 percent of employees should draw up an action plan to promote collective bargaining.