Germany: the Union of Christian Unions in the temporary sector isn’t authorized to sign collective agreements, Federal Labor Court rules

Victory for Verdi and the Land of Berlin. For the Union of Temporary Christian Unions (Tarifgemeinschaft Christlicher Gewerkschaften für Zeitarbeit und Personalserviceagenturen - CGZP), which lodged an appeal against the ruling rendered by the Regional Labor Court of Berlin/Brandenburg (see our dispatch No.  091133), the defeat is now final. The Federal Labor Court also judged that the CGZP wasn’t a “confederation authorized to sign collective agreements in its own name” (Ref: 1 ABR 19/10). It thus gave satisfaction to the Verdi services’ union and to the Land of Berlin, who sued the CGZP in October 2008. They accused the organization of a) systematically taking part in social dumping by negotiating agreements below the DGB and b) not being a true union. Since the CGZP is a “union for the negotiation of collective agreements” (Tarifgemeinschaft), which brought together, at the time, 4 small unions, Verdi and the Land of Berlin judged that the organization wasn’t representative enough to conclude sectoral collective agreements. Today, the Erfurt Tribunal has confirmed this.
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the defeat is now final. The Federal Labor Court also judged that the CGZP wasn’t a “confederation authorized to sign collective agreements in its own name” (Ref: 1 ABR 19/10). It thus gave satisfaction to the Verdi services’ union and to the Land of Berlin, who sued the CGZP in October 2008. They accused the organization of a) systematically taking part in social dumping by negotiating agreements below the DGB and b) not being a true union. Since the CGZP is a “union for the negotiation of col

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