Faced with the on-going decline in the number of companies operating under collective agreements within the Saarland, on 11 December 2019 Anke Rehlinger (SPD), the Minister for the State’s Economy and Social Affairs, presented the main thrusts of landmark legislation that would require companies seeking to secure public contracts in the state of Saarland to align their salaries and working conditions with those fixed in the relevant and operating ‘representative collective agreement’. Called the ‘Law for a fairer salary’ (Fairer-Lohn-Gesetz), this prospective law will go further than current legislation that requires compliance with salary and social minima as part of the public procurement framework and which already operates across 14 Länders. In welcoming this initiative the Verdi trade union is calling on other Länders and the Federal State to follow the Saarland example.
Strengthening collective negotiation. According to the Saarland Economy and Social Affairs Minister, this state needs fresh legislation to improve salaries and working conditions, because only 24% of companies operating in the Saarland currently operate within a collective agreement framework and that this compares unfavorably with the situation in 2001 when 42% of companies operated under collective agreements. As with thirteen other Länders (excluding Bavaria, Saxony, and the Federal State it
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