Germany : 2019/2020 schedule for collective bargaining

The Hans Böckler trade union foundation has recently published its mid-term review for collective agreements in 2019, as well as a calendar for negotiations taking place in the remainder of 2019 and in 2020. Overall, close to 10 million workers will be affected by these negotiations. During the first six months of 2019, the average pay rise obtained was 3.2% (compared to an average pay rise of 3% in 2018), while inflation during the period was 1.6%. According to the foundation, these figures indicate an upward trend for pay in the country.
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Leading the pack for pay rises is Germany’s metalworking sector, which has enjoyed a 4.1% increase in 2019. Industrial cleaning (2.3%) and Deutsche Post (2.1%) are the main laggards, while the agreements in the retail and banking sectors are yet to be taken into account. The average duration of agreements that have been negotiated is 26.5 months (26.6 months in 2018), with most of them including a two-step wage increase. For the coming period, the two main collective bargaining talks will be in

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