Germany: Verdi union gets a 6.5 percent wage increase for Telekom Deutschland’s 50,000 employees

6.5 percent increase over two years.  Both parties welcomed the agreement, secured after arduous negotiations punctuated by a series of warning strikes at national level.  “It is a good agreement (…) which we would not have reached without employees’ impressive aggressiveness” rejoiced Lothar Schröder, member of the union’s management.  A “compromise” was reached after a long phase of difficult negotiations, said Marion Schick, new Director of Personnel for the phone company.  The agreement provides for a 6.5 percent wage increase divided in three for Telekom Deutschland’s 50,000 employees.  The first increase (2.3 percent) will be retroactively paid on May 1, 2012.  Then will follow 2.1 percent on January 1, 2013 and 2.1 percent again on August 1, 2013.  Employees from the two lowest wage categories will get more: 3 percent on February 1, 2012, 2.1 percent on January 1, 2013 and 2.1 percent again on August 1, 2013.  The agreement, signed for 24 months, will be in force until January 31, 2014.  This agreement is mainly based on the agreement signed by Verdi on April 28 after a mediation procedure  for the 16,500 employees of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTAG, see our dispatch No.  120293).  Now, Verdi is determined to get the same for the 18,000 employees of T-Systems, the group’s second largest unit, for the negotiations which will reopen on May 15-16.