Employment is currently the big issue in the European Union. This report describes the recent initiatives known as PECs (pacts for employment and competitiveness) which are a combination of three main elements: competitiveness, employment and partnership.
Historically, the German Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and the German socialist trade unions, as opposed to the Christian and liberal unions, have the same roots in the labour movement of the second half of the 19th century. Since then, the Social Democrats
On 22 April 1999, after four rounds of negotiations, the construction workers' trade union IG BAU and the construction employers' associations, Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie (HDI) and Zentralverband des Deutschen Baugewerbes (ZDB), concluded a new collective agreement for the 800,000 or so
In April 1999, a new company collective agreement was agreed between the German car producer Volkswagen and the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union for the roughly 100,000 employees at the company's western German production locations. The agreement, which runs for 14 months, includes the following
On 18 March 1999, the German railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB) concluded two concern-level collective agreements with the GdED (Gewerkschaft der Eisenbahner Deutschlands) railworkers' trade union and the TGM bargaining cartel, which consists of the engine drivers' trade union (Gewerkschaft
In the 1990s, Germany has witnessed the emergence of employment alliances and pacts at all levels in order to avoid redundancies, and sometimes even to create new jobs (TN9710201S [1]). These have ranged from national, regional or sectoral tripartite or bipartite employment alliances and pacts, to
In February 1999, the social partners in the German metalworking sector signed new collective agreements for more than 3.2 million employees. The agreements basically provide for a 3.2% pay increase, plus a flat-rate payment of 1% of annual income. While the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union is to
On 20 March 1999, after four rounds of negotiations, the social partners in the private insurance industry - the insurance employers' association (Arbeitgeberverband der Versicherungsunternehmen in Deutschland, agv), the commerce, banking and insurance workers' union (Gewerkschaft Handel, Banken und
In February 1999, the public sector and transport employees' trade union (Gewerkschaft Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr, ÖTV) and the German White-Collar Workers' Union (Deutsche Angestelltengewerkschaft, DAG) concluded a package of agreements with the municipal employers' association
On 11 February 1999, the employers' association for the private waste-disposal industry (Bundesverband der Deutschen Entsorgungswirtschaft, BDE) and the public sector and transport employees' union (Gewerkschaft Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr, ÖTV) concluded a collective agreement for
In Germany, the concept of co-determination [1] refers to two distinct levels and forms of employee participation: co-determination at establishment level by the works council [2]; and co-determination above establishment level, on the supervisory board [3] of companies (DE9806267F [4]). Three