No sigh of relief for train passengers and commuters: The third round of talks in the collective bargaining dispute at Deutsche Bahn also ended without a result.
Further warning strikes in regional and long-distance transport are likely, even if the EVG union did not initially announce any concrete plans. “I can’t tell you whether that will be in the next few days,” said Cosima Ingenschay. “At the moment we are still in negotiation mode.”
In addition to Deutsche Bahn, EVG is gradually negotiating their demands with 50 other companies in the industry. Talks with various companies are scheduled for the whole of the coming week, said Ingenschay. Results were nowhere to be found. Even at Deutsche Bahn, with its around 180,000 affected employees, the wage round on Tuesday and Wednesday in Fulda remained without agreement. Both sides blamed each other for the temporary failure.
Mutual finger pointing
“Yesterday we submitted a significantly improved offer, historically the highest offer in the history of Deutsche Bahn,” said HR Director Martin Seiler. “Nevertheless, the EVG has described this as non-negotiable and is not prepared to enter into negotiations at all on this basis.”
The EVG expressed “extremely irritated” about the end of the talks by the group. “Our colleagues here in Fulda are ready to negotiate by Friday,” emphasized negotiator Kristian Loroch. “So far, the employer has not been able to present us with a negotiable offer.”
The proposal that the federal railway company submitted on Tuesday provided for a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment totaling 2,850 euros, which was to be paid out over several months. From March next year there will gradually be a total of 10 percent for the lower and middle wage groups and 8 percent for the upper wage groups. The term would have been 27 months.
The offer was largely based on the collective bargaining agreement that was reached in public service at the weekend. “But we have already said several times that a degree in public service has no relevance for our organizational area,” said Loroch. The EVG demands at least 650 euros more per month from the industry or 12 percent for the upper income groups and a term of one year.
Another sticking point: minimum wage
The sticking point in the negotiations at Deutsche Bahn is the minimum wage. Around 2,000 employees have so far only received this through allowances because the statutory minimum wage has risen faster than the tariff tables in recent years. Even before the substantive collective bargaining talks, the EVG wants to set the minimum wage of 12 euros per hour in the tables. Everything that is then decided in terms of collective bargaining would relate to the higher basis for those affected.
Deutsche Bahn, on the other hand, refuses to look at the minimum wage issue in isolation. It offers 13 euros per hour, but only wants to include this in the tables from August 2024.
The next negotiation date at the railway is scheduled for the end of May. So there is plenty of time for warning strikes. “We hope that we will get an improved offer in the near future, otherwise there will be warning strikes,” said EVG representative Ingenschay. “We have already said that it will be a bit more massive than in the past.” Already on Friday, the EVG paralyzed local and regional traffic for several hours.
The industrial action could – whether coordinated or not – coincide with other warning strikes, for example in local public transport. The Verdi union was already calling for work stoppages in public transport in some cities this Wednesday. Providers in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony were affected. The background to this is negotiations on a new collective wage agreement for the railways. However, this does not affect the negotiations with the EVG.
