Today, July 3, the Bundestag passed the “Act strengthening the social partners’ autonomy in collective bargaining” (Tarifautonomiestärkungsgesetz), introducing statutory minimum wage amounting to €8.5/hour in 2015. It’s the first time the German State has so massively interfered with the process for negotiating pay, which used to be the social partners’ monopoly. This minimum wage should lead to a global wage increase of €10 billion. With the law, the social partners in a sector will more easily be able to impose a collective agreement to all businesses in the sector. This “offensive” to strengthen the collective bargaining system should end in September with the vote of a law on union unity in businesses.
A historical change initiated by the trade unions and the SPD. The fact that the Bundestag adopted minimum wage on July 3 isn’t only a victory for the millions of underpaid German employees or for the social-democratic party and trade unions that had made it one of their central claims for years. It’s also a true revolution for the German “social market economy” model, i.e. a capitalist system where the States defines rules while interfering as little as possible, plus a co-management system for the labor world, dominated by the social partners. Bargaining for pay and working conditions has always been employers and unions’ prerogative.
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