Germany: Verdi union calls for a 6.5% wage increase for Deutsche Telekom staff

Improve the pay plan of T-Service employees.  For the renegotiation of the company collective agreements, which expire on December 31, 2010 (see our dispatch No.  090314), Verdi’s collective bargaining committee announced, on Friday, in Berlin, its wage claims for the employees of Deutsche Telekom AG, Telekom Deutschland GmbH and T-Service.  Verdi demands a 6.5% wage increase over 12 months, i.e. an increase of at least €170 a month.  “Employees deserve their fair share of the company’s global success” warned Lothar Schröder, member of Verdi’s management.  A Verdi spokesman told Planet Labor that this claim particularly concerns the 50,000 employees of T-Service’s three firms, whose “extraordinary supplement” expires at the end of the year.  After a strike that lasted several weeks, in 2007, these employees were transferred to companies gathered within the T-Service subsidiary.  They had to accept a 6.5% pay cut and increased working hours (see our dispatch No.  070175).  To make up for this loss of income, Verdi had managed to secure the payment of an “extraordinary supplement” for the employees affected.  “This supplement expires at the end of the year.  We want to obtain it again as well as a wage increase” the spokesman explained.  Also, Verdi demands, for the employees of Deutsche Telekom AG and Telekom Deutschland GmbH, the renewal of the agreement barring any economic layoffs, which expires on December 31, 2010.  T-Service employees have employment guarantee until December 31, 2013.