After another bankruptcy, the department store chain is trying to start over with fewer branches. The employees are to receive more money.
The department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (GKK) is offering its approximately 12,000 employees more money. The company announced in Essen that it had submitted a wage offer to the Verdi union for a pay increase of eight percent, which would be spread over three years. In addition, there is a tax-free inflation compensation bonus of 600 euros and an unspecified bonus with which the employees are to share in the success of their respective branches.
Management’s proposal is a department store collective agreement that only applies to GKK. A return to the nationwide retail collective agreement, which the company left a long time ago, is therefore off the table for management. This is likely to cause discontent on the union side.
GKK finance director Guido Mager explained that they wanted to offer employees “good, market-based working conditions and, accordingly, attractive remuneration.” Speed is important in the collective agreement in order to increase remuneration “within the shortest possible time.” “Long-winded and fruitless collective bargaining negotiations like in the past no longer fit into the short decision-making processes that we have set ourselves as a medium-sized company.” The collective agreement offer has pushed the company to its economic limits, said the director of human resources.
Germany’s last large department store group has been in crisis for a long time, and at the beginning of this year the company filed for bankruptcy again. In May, creditors approved the plan to restructure the company. The new owners are to be the US investment company NRDC and a holding company owned by the entrepreneur Bernd Beetz on August 1. The number of branches is to be reduced from the current 92 to 83 by September.
Source: Stern
