The proposal by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to cushion the high inflation in Germany with one-off payments instead of high collective wage increases has provoked opposition from the trade unions. “One-off payments don’t get us anywhere,” said Verdi chairman Frank Werneke on Monday to Bavarian radio. It is the primary task of the bargaining parties to ensure that permanently rising prices also lead to permanently effective collective wage increases. “And I don’t see that politicians can do that for us either.”
Thorben Albrecht, head of politics at IG Metall, wrote on Twitter that it was not good “if the chancellery interfered in collective bargaining”. One-off payments would not help offset inflation. A survey by IG Metall in the companies has clearly shown that employees are constantly asking for more money through wage agreements, wrote Albrecht. In the forthcoming collective bargaining round, IG Metall wants to push through wage increases of between seven and eight percent for the 3.9 million employees in the metal and electrical industry.
The police union made a similar statement. “This is not sustainable help. Life will also become more expensive in the coming months,” said Deputy GdP Federal Chairman René Klemmer in Mainz. Rather, permanent wage increases are necessary, which later also have an effect on the pension level.
Scholz had proposed the possibility of a tax-free one-off payment by employers to compensate for sharply rising prices. In return, the unions should forgo part of the wage increases in collective bargaining rounds in order not to further fuel inflation. Appropriate plans about which picture on sunday had reported, the dpa had been confirmed by government circles. A government spokesman declined to comment on the reports on Monday.
Finance Minister Lindner reacts cautiously to the Chancellor’s proposal
Verdi boss Werneke referred to the collective bargaining of his union, for example for the ports, Lufthansa or the public sector. The increased prices would have to be offset by a percentage increase, he said. Base amounts are also a possibility. However, these are not one-off payments, but would have an effect on the collective agreement as a monthly payment; that is, they bring about a permanent increase in wages by a fixed amount.
Scholz’s liberal coalition partner was cautious. The FDP chairman Christian Lindner wrote on Twitter: “One-off payments can make sense.” The Federal Minister of Finance wrote that he was examining tax measures at this point and in the cold progression. “But where companies make high profits, employer subsidies are not appropriate.” An extension of the Corona bonus to the entire economy would be “hardly financeable”.
Chancellor Scholz has invited business associations, trade unions and representatives of the Bundesbank to a meeting next Monday to discuss coordinated action against high inflation. The declared goal of the “concerted action” is to relieve the workers, but also to curb the price increase. Experts fear that the trade unions want to compensate for the loss of purchasing power through high wage settlements, which in turn could increase the rise in prices through higher wage costs.
Scholz emphasizes that no collective bargaining is to be held at the meeting, but he expressly praised the most recent agreements in the chemical industry from early April. In view of the great economic uncertainty, these provide for a one-off payment of 1,400 euros per employee as an interim solution in order to cushion the price increases for the time being. There are exceptions for companies in difficulty. A permanent wage increase is not to be negotiated again in the industry until October. The price increase was last in May at 7.9 percent compared to the same month last year.