On 11 May 2001, the Federal Council [1] (Bundesrat) (essentially parliament's upper house), finally approved the second part of the government's pension reform and thus cleared the way for a substantial revision of the German pensions system. In essence, the reform will replace the current "pay-as
On 24 April 2001, the German Trade Union Federation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) issued a press statement [1] setting out its policy regarding the immigration of workers. This initiative comes at a time when issues of migration and the development of the German labour force are being hotly
In late January 2001, the German parliament approved much of the pensions reform proposed by the current coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) (DE0101204F [1]). At the centre of the reform
On 3 April 2001, representatives of the metalworking employers' organisation for the district of Baden Württemberg (Südwestmetall) and the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union met for a first round of negotiations over a revision of the sector's general agreement on pay grades (Lohn- und
On 4 March 2001, leading representatives of the federal government, trade unions and employers' associations (see annex at the end of this record for details) met officially for their seventh round of top-level talks, chaired by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, within the national Alliance for Jobs
According to figures released in early 2001, total membership of the unions affiliated to the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) sank to 7.77 million in 2000, a decline of 264,000 compared with 1999. While the pace of the decline has slowed - membership fell by 274
In July 2000, the German parliament passed legislation to provide compensation for those involved in slave and forced labour during the Nazi period. As the result of lengthy negotiations between the governments of the USA, Germany and several eastern European countries, along with representatives of
Stella, the German music corporation, recently decided to restructure its theatre business and to move the performance of the musical "Cats" from Hamburg to Stuttgart. In this context, the company negotiated a framework agreement with the media workers' union Industriegewerkschaft Medien (IG Medien)
In a report on occupational health and safety (/Bericht über den Stand von Sicherheit und Gesundheit bei der Arbeit und über das Unfall- und Berufskrankheitsgeschehen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland im Jahr 1999/) issued in December 2000, theMinistry of Labour has presented comprehensive data on
On 7 December 2000, the German car manufacturer Volkswagen AG (VW) publicly announced a plan to change completely its system of supplementary retirement benefits. Instead of spending between DEM 1.5 billion and DEM 2 billion per year on a "pay-as-you-go" basis the company will now set aside money