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 20 June 2002, the Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) and the German Employers' Association for Insurance Companies (Arbeitgeberverband der Versicherungsunternehmen in Deutschland, AGV) signed a new collective agreement for the 240,000 or so employees in
On 15 May 2002, the regional metalworking employers' association in Baden-Württemberg, Südwestmetall, and the district organisation of the German Metalworkers' Union (IG Metall) concluded new pay agreements and agreed on the introduction of a new pay framework agreement (Entgeltrahmen-Tarifvertrag
In April 2002, the Mining, Chemicals and Energy Union (Industriegewerkschaft Bergbau, Chemie, Energie, IG BCE) and the German Federation of Chemicals Employers' Associations (Bundesarbeitgeberverband Chemie, BAVC) concluded new collective agreements for the chemicals industry, first for west Germany
Against the background of relatively moderate pay rises in recent years (DE0201201F [1]), most German trade unions have called for significant cost increases of between 4% and 6.5% in the 2002 collective bargaining round. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined
The current German federal government is a'red-Green' coalition comprising the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), which came to power after the last general election in September 1998. In 2001, there were four
On 25 January 2002, leading representatives of the federal government, trade unions and employers' and business associations met officially for their eighth round of top-level talks, chaired by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, within the national Alliance for Jobs, Training and Competitiveness (Bündnis
In January 2002, the Collective Agreement Archive (WSI-Tarifarchiv) of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI) within the Hans Böckler Foundation (Hans Böckler Stiftung) published its annual collective bargaining report, covering the
On 12 December 2001, the federal government adopted a bill on a new 'law on collectively agreed pay in public procurement' (Gesetz zur tariflichen Entlohnung bei öffentlichen Aufträgen) Under this proposed so-called 'Tariftreuegesetz' ('Law on loyalty to collectively agreed standards'), public
On 13 December 2001, the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union and the Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) reached an agreement on future collective bargaining arrangements at IBM Deutschland GmbH. The two unions agreed to create a joint collective bargaining
On 10 December 2001, the executive board of the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union decided its basic orientations for the 2002 collective bargaining round for the 3.6 million employees in the German metalworking industry. A new pay agreement should run from 1 March 2002 and would normally have a