The European Council held an extraordinary meeting on 23-24 March 2000 in Lisbon with the aim of agreeing a new strategic goal for the European Union, in order to strengthen employment, economic reform and social cohesion as part of a "knowledge-based economy" (EU0004241F [1]). The current
On 25 January 2000, the management of the Ford automobile manufacturing company in the USA and Europe, together with its component firm, Visteon, signed an agreement with the Ford European Works Council (EWC) and European employee representatives, relating to the employees of the European Visteon
Plans to restructure German Railways (Deutsche Bahn AG, DB AG) (DE0001234F [1]) have again caused insecurity among employees and put the company in the spotlight in early 2000. In March, Klaus Mehdorn, chair of the BD AG board, announced further structural reform plans which included handing over
On 16-17 March 2000, the five trade unions which are due to form a new merged Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, Ver.di) in spring 2001 (DE9911225F [1]) held a conference dealing with the question "What working time does Ver.di want?" The unions concerned are: the
On 24 January 2000, the German White-collar Workers' Union (Deutsche Angestellten Gewerkschaft, DAG), along with two smaller federations for salaried employees, concluded a collective agreement with employers for 470,000 employees in the banking sector. The Commerce, Banking and Insurance Union
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)
On 11 November 1999, Peter Hartz, head of the personnel management department at Volkswagen AG (VW AG) presented a new plan for the creation of 5,000 new jobs at VW, with the employees concerned receiving monthly pay of DEM 5,000. He stated that with this plan, abbreviated as "5,000 x 5,000", the
On 10 March 2000, the federal government decided to issue 10,000 limited work permits, with a duration of one to five years, for non-EU foreign experts in the information technology (IT) sector. The number of permits can be extended up to 30,000 in subsequent years, in the light of experience with
Since the mid-1990s, "employment alliances" have been established in most German federal states (Bundesländer). These are mostly tripartite initiatives in which governments, trade unions, and employers' and business associations seek to avoid redundancies and create new jobs (DE9905107F [1]). In
After a period of 13 months without a collective agreement in force in private sector banking, the employers and the German White-collar Workers' Union (Deutsche Angestellten Gewerkschaft, DAG), along with two smaller federations for salaried employees, concluded a collective agreement on 24 January