The legal basis of collective bargaining in Austria is laid down by the Labour Constitution Act (ArbVG). According to the ArbVG, collective agreements can be concluded only between collective organisations of employers and employees. Therefore, the Austrian labour law systematically benefits multi
The legal basis of collective bargaining in Germany is laid down by the Collective Agreements Act, 1949. Collective agreements can be concluded between employer associations (or individual employers) and trade unions. In contrast, works councils – statutory employee representation bodies elected at
On 6 October 2000, the IG Metall metalworkers' union launched a campaign () [1] in favour of a fairer distribution of wealth. The overall aim of this campaign is to launch a broad public debate on the existing distribution of wealth and poverty in Germany. During the coming months, IG Metall plans
On 18 September 2000, the executive board of the German car producer Volkswagen AG and the Lower-Saxony district organisation of the IG Metall metalworkers' union signed new company agreements for the 100,000 or so employees at the company's west German production locations. Volkswagen AG is the
On 7-8 September 2000, more than 50 leading representatives of trade unions from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands met in Luxembourg for the fourth annual joint meeting of the "Doorn group". As well as major sectoral unions, the participants represented the major national
On 15 August 2000, the German Food and Restaurant Workers' Union (Gewerkschaft Nahrung Genuss Gaststätten, NGG), the Austria n Union of Agricultural, Food, Beverage and Tobacco Workers (Gewerkschaf t Agrar- Nahrung – Genuss, ANG) and Hotel, Restaurant and Personal Services Workers' Union
After a new series of violent attacks against foreigners, the issue of xenophobia and right-wing extremism again became a high-profile topic in German public debate in summer 2000. Both employers' associations and trade unions have taken an active role in this debate and have come forward with
In July 2000, the collective agreement archive of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI) within the Hans-Böckler Foundation published an interim report on the 2000 collective bargaining round ("Tarifpolitischer Halbjahresbericht. Eine
On 7 July 2000, the German parliament (Bundestag), with the support of the "Red-Green" coalition government, adopted a revision of the Federal Childcare Payment and Parental Leave Act [1] (Bundeserziehungsgeldgesetz, BErzGG) which contains new provisions on parental leave and childcare payments. The
On 13 June 2000, after more than two months of relatively controversial negotiations and the failure of joint dispute resolution, the collective bargaining parties in the public sector reached a "last-minute compromise" over new collective agreements, just before the trade unions were ready to call
On 11 May 2000, the sectoral employers' association, Bundesverband Druck und Medien (BVDM), and the German Media and Printing Union, IG Medien, signed new collective agreements for blue-collar workers in the west German printing industry. The deals include the following provisions:
On 30 March 2000, the construction workers' trade union IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt (IG BAU) and the sector's two employers' associations, Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie (HDB) and Zentralverband des deutschen Baugewerbes (ZDB) concluded new collective agreements for about 780,000 employees in the