Germany still dealing with last year's business

German negotiators are still finishing off last year's negotiations rather than settling this year's demands.

Last month Verdi, the German service workers' union, agreed a 2.4% increase in a 12-month deal covering 60,000 employees in German travel agents. This is more than inflation, which was 1.7% in February, but overall the settlement is modest as the previous agreement ran out at the end of October last year and the current settlement is not backdated. This means employees have had seven months without an increase. In addition, because of the difficulties facing the industry, the union has agreed that companies facing particular problems can cut pay rates or hours temporarily if this avoids redundancies.

Meanwhile, Verdi has matched the call of IG Metall, the metalworking union, for an increase of 6.5% for key bargaining groups this year. Verdi has put this claim on the table for both bank and distribution workers. The second round of negotiations in the metalworking industry on the union's 6.5% claim has ended without any progress and IG Metall has repeated its promise of warning strikes early in April if there is no meaningful advance.