After the complicated start of negotiations between Deutsche Bahn and the railway and transport union (EVG), the group promised a tariff offer. The German Press Agency learned this from Bahn circles.
Accordingly, the company has invited the union by letter to continue the collective bargaining in Berlin next week. The EVG was willing to talk, but also reacted cautiously. It is “first of all to be welcomed that the employer is giving up its attitude of refusal”, which was “not well received” by the employees, said an EVG spokesman on Wednesday.
Bahn wants to submit a complete offer
“We think it makes sense and is necessary for the further course of the negotiations, in particular the derivation of an offer, to enter into the substantive discussion of the demands, positions and respective priorities in the next round of negotiations,” says the letter from the railways, that of the Germans press agency is available. “In this context, we are prepared and ready to make you an overall offer to solve the collective bargaining round at the second meeting.” The union is asked for feedback as to whether it is prepared “to conduct collective bargaining within the negotiating committee accordingly”.
The first round of negotiations was interrupted a week ago after just two hours. The EVG did not want to negotiate further without an offer from the employer. In the negotiations, the union is demanding at least 650 euros more wages for 180,000 employees, and they want to achieve an increase of twelve percent for the higher wages. The term should be twelve months. In addition, she calls for some structural changes in the collective agreements. Deutsche Bahn considered the demands far too high and the interruption in negotiations after only two hours in the first round as “completely unnecessary”. DB HR director Martin Seiler put the total volume of EVG claims at 25 percent – that would correspond to around 2.5 billion euros per year.
Focus on the issue of minimum wage
An EVG spokesman said that the union maintained that it wanted to prioritize the minimum wage issue before entering into actual negotiations. One is curious whether the railways will put a negotiable offer on the table. Basically, the union is always ready to talk and go into the negotiations unencumbered. However, a pure “debate round” will not take place, it must be about topics in terms of content. In addition, the union will only negotiate with the railways on March 15 and before that will call for a large demonstration in Berlin on March 14.
The DB letter, in turn, said that the negotiations in the coming week should begin on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The Nordbahnhof in Berlin was named as the place of negotiation.
According to the EVG, the minimum wage is currently only being met for a few thousand employees thanks to allowances that have not yet been included in the income table. EVG negotiator Cosima Ingenschay had said before the round of wage negotiations that the union “doesn’t see it as an obligation” to negotiate the minimum wage, “but that has to be the starting point for us”.
EVG threatens warning strike
Even before the collective bargaining began, the EVG had threatened that without an offer from the employer it would consider a warning strike in the first round of negotiations. The union is negotiating in parallel with 50 other companies in the industry, their demands are always the same.
After the negotiations with DB last week, the union announced that it would take stock after the first round with all 50 companies at the end of March and then decide on further steps – such as warning strikes. At the same time, she had emphasized that companies that submit an offer would no longer have to face the threat of a strike.
