On Saturday 15 December, following difficult negotiations that were marked by a warning strike on 10 December that left much of the country’s rail traffic paralyzed, Germany’s rail company, Deutsche Bahn, along with the large rail union, the EVG, adopted a collective agreement that once again includes workers’ various demands and needs. As with the 2016 agreement, this new edition also includes higher salaries, this time amounting to 6.1% in two stages (+3.5% from 01/07/2019 and +2.6% from 01/07/2020) as well as a new ‘options model’. The ‘options model’ will allow workers to receive the second stage pay rise of 2.6% either in the form of higher pay, or six extra days of leave time, or a reduction in overall working time. This new agreement will run for 29 months and expire on 28 February 2021.
More leave time or more money. Buoyed by the success of the previous ‘options model’, Deutsche Bahn and the EVG trade union have decided to repeat the formula (c.f. article No. 10848). Deutsche Bahn workers will first and foremost be receiving a two-stage salary rise comprising 3.5% from 01 July 2019 and then a further 2.6% from 01 July 2020. For the period October 2018 – June 2019 workers will also receive a €1,000 lump-sum payment that will be paid in February 2019. As was the case two years
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