Already caught up in a massive scandal over tampered diesel engines, Germany’s automobile group Volkswagen risks having to deal with considerable social conflict. IG Metall has announced that during the upcoming negotiations to renew the ‘Volkswagen house agreement’ it will be both calling for an agreement that is at least equivalent to the metals industry collective agreement, as well as a renewal of the VW agreement on early retirement. In line with the metals sector, during the VW negotiations due to start on 26 April, IG Metall is calling for a 5% salary increase over twelve months for the 115,000 VW workers in Germany. The VW house agreement and its ‘social peace’ clause come to term on 31 May 2016, two months after the metal industry collective agreement expires.
A company agreement that is more generous than the industry agreement. Set up for historical reasons, following the second world war, Volkswagen’s house agreement (Haustarifvertrag) remains today the largest German company collective agreement and applies to 115,000 employees working across six sites in the west of Germany (Braunschweif, Emden, Kassel, Hanover, Wolfsburg, and Salzgitter) and in the Volkswagen Lower Saxony Financial Services division.
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