Germany: two simultaneous conciliation procedures in the rail sector

Employers are divided.  On October 26th, Transnet and GDBA launched warning strikes across the country to support their claims (see our dispatch No. 100725).  They want the signature of a collective agreement for all rail employees to put an end to growing wage dumping in the sector.  Indeed, wages paid by private operators are about 20% lower than wages paid by the Deutsche Bahn (DB).  To face this competition and win calls for tenders, the DB itself created subsidiaries where wages are lower than at the parent company.  To put a stop to this, the trade unions want to secure a collective agreement for all the employees based on the DB’s scales, which the six private operators (Veolia, Keolis, Arriva, Abellio, Hessische Landesbahn and Benex) refuse.  Afraid of seeing such an agreement imposed, on November 5th, the trade unions refused a single conciliation procedure as the trade unions proposed.  “We would have liked a bigger step forward” but “at least it’s a step in the right direction” declared Alexander Kirchner and Heinz Fuhrmann, respectively leaders of Transnet and GDBA, in a press release.  However, they think that the appointment of a single mediator will help, “in the end, adjust the outcome of the two procedures.”