Germany: 4.6% wage increase in two installments in the paper industry

This year, union and employer negotiators in the paper industry (40,000 employees) started the collective negotiations for the renewal of an agreement expiring on November 30 with very different claims since the representatives of the mining, chemistry, energy union were calling for a 6% increase while employers offer 2.2%.  Thus, after three meetings and many strikes, the social partners finally reached a compromise, which unions qualified of “honorable.”  The IG BCE said that the point was to remember all the compromises employees made during the last crisis.  The agreement signed is valid for 18 months starting on December 1, 2011.  For December, which already started, employees will get a €70 bonus (€35 for apprentices). Starting on January 1, 2012, apprenticeship pay and benefits will increase by 3%. There will be another 1.6% increase on January 1, 2013.  With this long agreement and a wage increase divided in two, the social partners met halfway from their initial claims.