Germany: steel industry wages to rise by 2.3%

75,000 workers in the steel industry, employed by the large steel companies in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, and Bremen that produce most of Germany’s steel, are set to receive a 2.3% rise in wages for a year. On 26 November the social partners agreed the pay rise along with renewing current provisions over part-time retirement and services provisions contracts. This agreement comes at a difficult and uncertain time for the industry that is being flooded by Chinese low cost exports as well as trying to manage uncertainty over European CO2 reforms.
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Wages to rise by 2.3% plus a €200 lump sum. On 26 November, IG Metall and WV Stahl (the German Steel Federation) presented the details of what they considered to be a good compromise in difficult times. Germany’s 75,000 workers in the country’s northeast will receive a wage rise of 2.3% from 01 January 2016 as compared with initial IG Metall demands of 5%. Since the previous collective agreement reached it term on 31 October 2105, workers will also receive a lump sum €200 (apprentices will get €

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