Even though their positions were closer, the food and catering union (NGG) and the food employers’ organization (VDEW) failed, on Tuesday, December 17, to adopt a collective agreement introducing, for the first time, minimum wage in the meat industry, a sector that is highly criticized for its wage dumping practices. The parties were both disappointed in the outcome of the talks. Thus, the sector’s approximately 80,000 workers and the numerous workers from eastern Europe working with a ‘service provision contract should remain without minimum wage until January 1, 2015, when Germany should introduce its first ever universal minimum wage, amounting to €8.5 an hour (gross). (Ref. 130810)
Unions rejected employers’ compromise. And yet, the second round of the negotiations opened on October 22, 2013 (see article No. 130643) had started out well. The employers’ organization, which had been calling for the introduction of minimum wage for months – different in the east and west to take account of productivity levels –, changed its mind and accepted the idea (vigorously defended by the union) of bargaining for a single minimum wage across the country. Employers said they were re
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