It is the last of three dates agreed in court. Will the 10th collective bargaining round bring new impetus to the deadlocked talks? Verdi submits a modified offer.
In the deadlocked collective bargaining dispute over the wages of dockers at the North Sea ports, the Verdi trade union has once again asked employers to make an improved offer. It is now up to the employers whether there will be a negotiation result, said negotiator Maya Schwiegershausen-Güth on Friday, according to a Verdi statement.
The negotiations, which were accompanied by a series of warning strikes, are to be continued with a tenth round on Monday in Bremen. It is the last of three appointments that the social partners had to agree on after a court settlement. In return, it was agreed that further warning strikes are initially excluded. “We still expect that the employer side will use the court-ordered three negotiation dates to advance a collective bargaining agreement and to submit appropriate offers,” said Schwiegershausen-Güth.
At its core, the conflict is about bringing together Verdi’s demand for compensation for the currently very high inflation with the employer’s desire for a 24-month term. Most recently, possible mechanisms and criteria were discussed that would enable improvements or renegotiations for the second year of the term in the event of persistently high inflation in 2023. According to Verdi, in the previous round of negotiations, the employers “presented a model that shifted the risk of possible price increases in the second year by 30 percent to the employees”.
The union had entered the negotiations with a package of demands that, according to Verdi, would mean wage increases of up to 14 percent over a period of 12 months. Since the beginning of July, there has been an offer from employers that has been described as “final” – but with a term of 24 months – with 12.5 percent for employees in container companies and 9.6 percent for employees in conventional companies. For “employment security companies” with economic difficulties and a restructuring collective agreement, the ZDS estimates the offer at 5.5 percent.
Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
