After more than three months of intense negotiations, the social partners in the German metalworking industry's Baden Württemberg bargaining region finally signed a new collective agreement on further and continuing training in June 2001. The agreement will entitle employees to determine their training needs in annual consultations with their employer, with the latter paying for the subsequent training. The parties also agreed to set up a new agency which will assist companies and employees to improve the maintenance, adaptation and upgrading of skills. The IG Metall trade union hopes to conclude similar agreements in other bargaining regions.
Late at night on 19 June 2001, representatives of Südwestmetall, the metalworking employers' association for the district of Baden Württemberg, and the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union concluded a collective agreement on further and continuing training, following more than three months of negotiations. Employers had been rather reluctant to grant workers legal entitlements to such training, but the union mobilised large parts of its membership to reach a breakthrough in bargaining. The final settlement came after several targeted warning strikes in which, according to IG Metall, close to 200,000 workers had participated. Although the union failed to achieve a say in setting the pace of work, which was one of IG Metall's original demands in the talks (DE0104218F), it considers the settlement to be a major success. According to Berthold Huber, head of the IG Metall Baden Württemberg regional organisation, the massive mobilisation in support of the new agreement has shown the increasing importance of "qualitative" bargaining issues and also refuted the notion that his union was exclusively interested in wages.
The new agreement entitles employees to have regular consultations with their employers to determine their needs for future training. Such consultations are to be conducted at least once every year. Training measures can focus on either maintaining workers' skills, or adapting their qualifications to new occupational demands, or providing skill upgrading to achieve a more qualified position within the company. Training is to be paid for by employers and conducted during regular working hours.
In companies with more than 300 employees, a new "parity commission", comprised of three representatives of management and three from the works council, will mediate in the event of disputes related to the determination of employees' further training needs. If mediation fails to reach a compromise, a new "Agency for the Improvement of Continuing Training" (Agentur zur Förderung der beruflichen Weiterbildung) will be consulted. A representative of the Agency will then join the parity commission and wield a casting vote.
Although Südwestmetall and IG Metall are still to determine the exact organisational structure of the new Agency, the collective agreement defines a far-reaching list of competences and responsibilities. Among other points, the joint body will:
- advise companies and their workers on how to develop their qualification potential more completely;
- develop appropriate measures for further training, in particular benefiting older and low-skilled workers;
- observe changes in companies' skill demands and suggest measures which are appropriate to avoid skill shortages, and which provide employees with better job opportunities;
- provide additional information on training courses;
- develop new curricula and models for continuing training;
- provide advice for companies (in particular small and medium-sized firms) and their works councils; and
- develop quality standards for continuing training and evaluate and certify those institutions which offer training courses.
The creation of the new Agency was at the top of the employers' list of bargaining demands and Otmar Zwiebelhofer, the president of Südwestmetall, was thus quite pleased with the outcome of the negotiations. According to a press statement, Mr Zwiebelhofer believes that the Agency will in particular benefit small and medium-sized firms because it will help them to keep pace with technological change. Because the Agency will employ supposedly "neutral" training experts, he hopes to protect companies from conflict with IG Metall. According to Mr Zwiebelhofer, there is a good chance that company-level training agreements will be customised to fit companies' needs and thus enable them to adapt flexibly to new market conditions.
The bargaining parties also agreed on provisions which will make it easier for employees to participate in long-term training in educational institutions. After five years or more in a company, employees now have the right to leave the company for up to three years to obtain further qualifications. After completion of the training, employees are entitled to return to a comparable or more qualified job within the same company.
The agreement is due to take effect on 1 September 2001 and IG Metall is eager to extend the provisions to other bargaining districts. According to the IG Metall president, Klaus Zwickel, the settlement in the south-west might serve as a pattern-setter for the rest of the country. However, because negotiations in other districts are not due before spring 2002, the union might be forced to negotiate training issues alongside new wage agreements (current pay deals expire in spring 2002). Gesamtmetall, the federal metalworking employers' association, takes a more distanced approach to the training agreement. According to a statement by Hans Werner Busch, Gesamtmetall's general secretary, his organisation recognises the need for further training but also leaves it to its individual regional affiliates in the federal states whether or not to negotiate a separate agreement on training.