In February 2000, the IG BCE trade union and the employers' association for the German rubber manufacturing industry signed a set of collective agreements for the sector's 30,000 employees. A cornerstone of this deal, which could set an example for the whole 2000 bargaining round, is a new scheme for partial and early retirement, combined with a job-creation agreement.
On 11 February 2000, the Mining, Chemicals and Energy Union (IG Chemie, Bergbau und Energie, IG BCE) and the Employers' Association of the German Rubber Manufacturing Industry (Arbeitgeberverband der deutschen Kautschukindustrie) signed a package of collective agreements (Kautschuk-Tarifpaket 2000). This package, which applies to the sector's 30,000 workers, includes:
The core of the package, and the part which has attracted most public interest, is an "employment pact", which is based on new regulations for partial retirement and early retirement and on a collective agreement on the promotion of employment. Under the 1996 law on partial retirement, employees older than 55 years who reduced their working time to half received 70% of their last net pay (50% paid by the employer and 20% by the Federal Employment Service). In 1996, IG BCE and the employers concluded a collective agreement for the rubber industry on the basis of this law. The legislation was developed in 1998 (DE9801146N) and the rubber industry scheme has now been improved, so that employees who take advantage of partial retirement now receive at least 85% (95% for shiftworkers in a three-shift system) of their last net pay.
In addition, the new agreement provides that older employees should be given the opportunity for voluntary early retirement without reductions in their pension rights. The general retirement age is 65 and in accordance with the law, the pension payments for employees who leave their jobs prematurely are reduced by 0.3% for each month not worked before the age of 65 years. This means that a worker taking early retirement at 60 year has to accept an 18% reduction in pension entitlement. The new agreement guarantees that employees who worked in a three-shift system will receive 100% compensation for this reduction, while other employees will receive compensation of up to 60%. For tax reasons, the maximum compensation in both cases is DEM 24,000. This improvement in early retirement provisions is financed by a sectoral fund, set up by an "association for the promotion of employment" (Verein zur Beschäftigungsförderung) founded by IG BCE and the employers. Employees contribute 0.4% of the collectively agreed pay increase into the fund and older shiftworkers forgo free shifts, thus contributing a total of some DEM 13 million to the fund. The money in the fund may be used only if an unemployed person or a vocational trainee is taken on to replace the person who is retiring early.
The rubber industry collective agreement sets an example for the current bargaining round for two reasons. First, IG BCE and the employers have created a collectively agreed model for the co-financing of early retirement, which can be compared with the IG Metall metalworkers' union's proposal for a legal right to early retirement at 60 and a collective bargaining fund to make additional contributions to the statutory pension scheme for workers who have taken early retirement (DE9910217F). Furthermore, the sectoral social partners emphasise that their new agreement is in line with the targets of the tripartite national Alliance for Jobs, which in January 2000 recommended a bargaining policy based on productivity growth, which should be used for job-creating agreements (DE0001232F). Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has expressed his approval of the agreement in the rubber industry, citing it as an example for current collective bargaining in the public sector.