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 13 November 2001, the Hamburg regional organisation of the Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) and the Employers' Association for the Hamburg Retail Sector (Landesverband des Hamburger Einzelhandels, LHE) concluded a new collective agreement [1] for
On 16 November 2001, the Food and Restaurant Workers' Union (Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten, NGG) and the Employers' Association for the Soft Drinks Industry (Wirtschaftsvereinigung Alkoholfreie Getränkeindustrie, WAFG) concluded new collective agreements for about 18,000 employees in the
A recent study by the consulting and accounting company Arthur Andersen finds that the income of 'top managers' in Germany has seen significant increases in recent years, to the extent that it has almost reached the levels of equivalent managers in Anglo-Saxon countries. The study analyses the
On 6-7 September 2001, nearly 50 leading representatives of trade unions from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands met in Houffalize (Belgium) for the fifth annual joint meeting of the 'Doorn group'. As well as major sectoral unions, the participants represented the major national
On 10 August 2001, the Unified Service Sector Union (Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) and the Association of German Cinemas (Hauptverband Deutscher Filmtheater, HDF) signed a new nationwide pay agreement and a new framework collective agreement [1] (Manteltarifvertrag) for employees
On 28 August 2001, the German-based car producer Volkswagen (VW) and the IG Metall metalworkers' trade union concluded a package of company agreements for the new VW subsidiary, Auto 5000 GmbH. The company agreements will be effective for 3,500 newly hired employees at the VW Wolfsburg plant and
On 20-21 June 2001, the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF) held its fourth European collective bargaining conference in Oslo. EMF is the second-largest European industry federation affiliated to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and represents about 6 million workers in 56
At the beginning of July 2001, the management of the German subsidiary of the US-based computer and printer multinational Hewlett-Packard (HP) send a letter to each of its 5,700 regular employees, in which it asked them to join voluntary cost-saving measures aimed at helping the company to manage
In July 2001, the Collective Agreement Archive (WSI-Tarifarchiv) of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI) within the Hans-Böckler Foundation published an interim report on the 2001 collective bargaining round (, Reinhard Bispinck/WSI
On 14 February 2001, the cabinet of the German federal government adopted a draft bill [1] on reform of the Works Constitution [2] Act (Betriebsverfassungsgesetz, BetrVG) - the law which determines the legal framework for co-determination at the level of the establishment [3] in the private sector