Germany: decline of collective agreements slows slightly in 2020

The Institute for Employment Research (IAB), which is part of Germany’s Federal Employment Agency, has just published figures on the scope of collective agreements in 2020. These figures are very reliable, since they are based on responses from a panel of 16,000 companies. Last year, 43% of German employees – 45% of those in the west of the country and 32% in the east – worked in a company that respected a branch agreement. These figures mark a slight decline from 46% and 34% respectively in 2019. To put these figures into perspective and to better measure the long-term decline, it should be pointed out that in 1996, 70% of employees in the west and 55% in the east worked in a company covered by a collective branch agreement. Another finding for 2020 is that the proportion of employees working in a company that has negotiated an ‘in-house agreement’ remains stable with 8% in the west (compared to 7% in 2019) and 11% in the east (11% in 2019). Finally, the proportion of employees working in companies not covered by a collective branch agreement remained stable in the west at 47% (no change from 2019), but increased in the east to 57% (up from 55% in 2019).