Germany: IG Metall is now the leading representative union on SAP’s Works Council

According to initial results released on 06 April, the IG Metall metalworking union’s electoral list for representation on German IT leader, SAP’s (German IT leader with 22,000 employees) works council (WC) has just achieved a remarkable success. Following a tough initial establishment in 2007 and subsequent years of tackling a generally union-unfriendly management and professional environment, the IG Metall electoral list has for the first time come out on top with 19% of the vote. Verdi (services union), SAP’s other representative trade union’s electoral list came in third with 12% of the vote. Taken together, trade union representatives will hold 15 of the 45 seats on the IT leader’s WC (9 seats for IG Metall, 6 seats for Verdi). A co-operation agreement already operates between both trade unions. The internal Triple E electoral list came in second with 8 seats on the WC. At first glance this result appears a long way from the 80% results that German unions can achieve for instance at Volkswagen and Bayer. However, the trade unions at SAP now have a solid basis for organizing a majority position in the company’s WC. It seems that one of the reasons for this success is the consequence of the very strong slowdown in wage growth in the company and the resulting discontent among employees. The German press also believes that IG Metall’s offensive into new economic sectors is beginning to pay off. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung publication, which refers to IG Metall’s ‘SAP trophy’, sees this as a visible sign for an entire sector ‘that Germany’s most powerful trade union is also able to promote its influence in the new software-dominated industrial world.’