Tariffs: Collective bargaining for Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks

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Collective bargaining for Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks

Start of collective bargaining for Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken. Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa

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The wage settlements for the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken are negotiated in Germany. The DBV union wants to achieve results quickly, but this will require a willingness to compromise.

For a good 135,000 employees of German cooperative banks, it has been about money since Tuesday.

In the collective bargaining for the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken, the DBV union wants to push through a 6.1 percent increase in wages and a reduction in weekly working hours by one hour to 38 hours. Before the negotiations began on Tuesday in Sulzbach, Hesse, the employers had lowered expectations.

As in the collective bargaining rounds that have now been concluded for the state and development banks as well as private banks, the topic of mobile working is also on the table this time. The Association of German Bank Employees (DBV) calls for binding minimum standards in the cooperative institutes.

Before the start of the negotiations, the chief negotiator for the Employers’ Association of German Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken (AVR), Jürgen Kikker, referred to the challenges and risks for the institutes, such as digitization and the Ukraine war. “The high salary demands do not take this into account, but are solely shaped by the goal of counteracting inflation,” said Kikker. The AVR represents around 750 Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks as well as the leading cooperative institute DZ Bank.

In the talks for the cooperative banks, the DHV trade union is also represented as a long-standing negotiating partner with the cooperative works councils organized by it. In June, the Federal Labor Court had denied the DHV – Die Berufsunion’s collective bargaining capacity. The DHV has lodged a constitutional complaint against the judgment of the highest German labor judges.

dpa

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