Status: 11.09.2021 10:35 a.m.
In order to prevent another strike, Deutsche Bahn claims to have improved its offer. The train drivers’ union GDL should return to collective bargaining, a deal is “overdue”.
In the wage dispute at Deutsche Bahn, the company claims that it is taking another step towards the train drivers’ union GDL. A new offer now contains a “fee component”, announced the railway. “The group also declares its readiness to review the scope of the GDL tariff regulations in today’s GDL majority companies.”
In addition, Deutsche Bahn agreed to receive unrestricted entitlements from the previous pension system until the end of 2020. Personnel director Martin Seiler said there were viable solutions on the table. “A collective agreement with the GDL is overdue.” He urged the union to return to collective bargaining and come to an end quickly.
GDL threatens further strikes
The GDL had threatened to prepare for the next strike on Monday if the railway did not submit a “negotiable offer” by then. Despite months of wage disputes, you and the group were unable to agree on a deal.
The union is demanding 3.2 percent more wages for a term of 28 months and a corona bonus of 600 euros. The railway wants to extend the tariff increase over a longer period of time and offers a term of 36 months. She also agreed to the corona premium.
Employers are calling for a change in the law
After the GDL strikes, employers see a need for legal reform at the railways. Employer President Rainer Dulger told the dpa news agency that the strike no longer had much to do with the implementation of wage demands. That is obvious. “The GDL is fighting for the pioneering position in a large company and is paralyzing the whole country. For me, this shows that there is a need for the legislature here.”
In the area of infrastructure in particular, the state should think more sensitively about how to organize “cooling-off phases”. “Because here the damage caused by a strike is particularly great and takes a particularly large number of bystanders hostage,” said Dulger. “Of course I accept that there can be labor disputes, but labor disputes without rules do not fit into the social market economy of the 21st century.”
Dulger made it clear that he did not want any further tightening of the tariff unit law. The train drivers’ union GDL sees itself in fierce competition with the larger railway and transport union EVG. According to the unified collective bargaining law passed in 2015, only the collective agreement of the larger employee representation should apply to two unions in one company. This principle is called “one company – one collective agreement”. In the majority of the 300 or so railway operations, this is the EVG from the perspective of the railway.