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German commerce employers want to get rid of collective agreements?
UNI-Europa Commerce is concerned about impact on future labour relations

Germany's commerce employers' associations are conducting what seems to be a collective agreement busting campaign. For more than a year, they have insisted on major concessions from commercial workers' trade union ver.di as a condition for signing a collective agreement. These include removing all compensations for work during unsocial hours, and the employer proposal would lead to important real income losses for large numbers of workers.

The German economy is not in recession and there is no reason for concluding collective agreements that would lead to real income losses. The employers' associations are of course well aware of this, and some major employers such as the huge retail group Rewe have indeed signed temporary house agreements on a higher level.

The commerce employers also know very well that removing the additional pay for late night working just after they pressed through a liberalisation of shop opening legislation is a no go for the union. A broader late night opening would only sharpen the already deadly competition in German retailing, where hard discounters have a huge 40 per cent market share in food retailing. But removing the wage compensations would also mean important real income cuts for many shop workers, who already work regularly during evening hours.

It seems clear that the employers' associations are indeed out to bring the collective agreement structures in Germany to a fall. Otherwise it is hard to explain why they insist on what are impossible demands while at the same time major employers conclude house agreements on a higher level.

On the union side, ver.di has a massive support from its members who have taken to strike actions to an extent never seen before in German retailing. It seems obvious that these efforts will continue, with full support from the other sectors of ver.di.

The UNI-Europa Commerce Steering Group discussed the German collective agreement situation at its meeting in Reykjavik last week, and expressed its support for ver.di's action in defense of the collective agreement system. UNI-Europa Commerce also called on Germany's employers' associations to give up their destructive approach to this collective bargaining round and to return in good faith to the negotiations table, seeking a fair solution instead of the massive standard cuts now proposed.