The social partners in Germany’s rubber industry have achieved a first in the country by signing a branch agreement that will authorise and regulate the right of trade unions to engage with employees at firms the sector via virtual means. In future, unions will be able to use the electronic means of communication available in the company to contact employees for trade union information purposes, under certain conditions. This agreement, which is the first of its kind in Germany, could shift the fault lines that exist between employers and trade unions on this highly controversial topic.
A pioneering agreement on a controversial topic. On 22 April, ADK, the federation of employers in the German rubber industry, and the trade union IG BCE – the social partners for this small industrial sector, comprising 30,000 employees across 100 companies – took a step ahead of the rest of the German economy by signing an agreement on the right of trade unions to contact employees virtually. The agreement was revealed on 18 May by IG BCE. As Planet Labor explained in March this year, followin
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