A new collective agreement is being negotiated for employees of state and development banks, building societies and some savings banks. Before it begins, the positions are far apart.
Before the start of collective bargaining negotiations for around 60,000 employees of state and development banks as well as several savings banks, employers are dampening expectations.
“We recognize that there has been an unexpected inflation trend. But this cannot be offset by employers alone,” Dominik Lamminger, a member of the management board of the Association of German Public Banks (VÖB), told the German Press Agency. “And looking ahead, it must also be recognized that the economic environment for banks has deteriorated significantly.”
The Verdi union is going into talks for the public banks next Friday in Düsseldorf with a demand for a 12.5 percent pay increase. The union wants employees to receive at least 500 euros more per month in the future to cushion the impact of the increased prices. The German Bank Employees Association (DBV) wants to push through 14.5 percent or at least 500 euros more.
Verdi: Little room for negotiation
Verdi negotiator Jan Duscheck stressed: “We have the ambition to compensate for the real wage loss of the past two years.” Employees’ expectations are high. “This round of wage negotiations will be a challenging one because we see little room for negotiation downwards. We must push through as much of this 12.5 percent as possible in order to cushion the real wage loss,” said Duscheck.
The negotiations affect employees of state banks and development banks, including the state-owned KfW, as well as employees of Dekabank, building societies and individual savings banks such as Hamburg’s Haspa.
In the previous collective bargaining round in 2021/2022, Verdi and the employers only reached an agreement in the sixth round of negotiations. At the time, it was agreed that the collective wage agreements would increase by three percent on July 1, 2022, and a further two percent on July 1, 2023. In addition, employees received a one-off payment of 1,050 euros in two tranches, and weekly working hours were reduced from 39 to 38 hours from January 1, 2024.
Source: Stern
