Germany: new “historical” sectoral collective agreement in local rail traffic

End of wage dumping.  With this sectoral agreement, adopted after months of particularly tricky negotiations (see our dispatch No.  100725), the new rail union, EVG (Eisenbahn – und Verkehrsgewerkschaft) obtained what it had been asking for months: wage unity for a large majority of employees in the local rail industry in Germany.  From May 1, 2011, the Deutsche Bahn’s six main private rivals (Abellio rail, Arriva, BeNEX, Keolis, Veolia Verkehr and Hessische Landesbahn) will have to offer wages in line with the Deutsche Bahn’s for tender offers to run local lines.  “The time when businesses tried to win contracts with wage dumping is over.  (…)  This is a great victory” rejoiced Alexander Kirschner, leader of the EGV union, born from the merger between Transnet and GDBA.  Until now, the wage level in private firms and in the DB’s 17 subsidiaries, not covered by collective agreements, was 10-20% lower than at the Deutsche Bahn.  Saying that the agreement is a “milestone in the history of collective agreements in the German rail industry,” Mr. Kischner added, in a press release, that collective agreements providing for higher wages than the sectoral agreement would still be valid.  And where wages are lower, they will be “gradually adjusted.”  He then added: “The approximately 35,000 employees in local rail transportation can rest now; the rail and transportation union has defended their interests well.”  The agreement was achieved after a conciliation procedure led by Peter Struck, former leader of the social-democratic Parliamentary group.