Germany: chemical industry workers to receive a one-off €1,400 salary bridging bonus

While collective bargaining negotiations commenced in the first of Germany’s strategic economic sectors since the onset of inflation (7.3% March) and the war in Ukraine, on 04 April they resulted in a temporary stop-gap salary solution and a seven-month postponement in salary negotiations until October 2022. Until then, the industry’s 580,000 employees will receive a ‘bridging bonus’ of €1,400 in May (apprentices will receive €500 euros). According to calculations by the social partners, this one-off bonus represents an average ‘increase’ of about 5.3% over 7 months. Struggling companies will be able to pay the lower amount of €1,000. “It has been a long and difficult road to get employers onto our bridge spanning the valley of uncertainty,” said negotiator and vice-president of the chemical union IGBCE Ralf Sikorski. “This intermediate solution is far from our wishes. But it does give us the breathing space we need to await geopolitical and economic developments in the coming months and continue these collective bargaining negotiations in the autumn on the basis of what we hope will be a clearer set of data.” In order to support and reintegrate apprentices who ‘dropped out’ during the pandemic, a budget of three million euros has been made available under the new ‘AusbildungPlus’ (TrainingPlus) program. Finally, an in-depth scientific evaluation of the effects of mobile work on work and health protection, working time, productivity, work organization and data security will also be launched.