DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi has welcomed plans by the federal government to strengthen collective agreements as a step against wage dumping. Fahimi rejected criticism from the employers’ association BDA, which considers the plans to be unconstitutional. The SPD in the Bundestag announced the corresponding law for this autumn.
The coalition will get the Federal Tariff Loyalty Act in the fall, said the SPD social politician Martin Rosemann of the German Press Agency in Berlin. In this way, the government wants to bind the award of contracts by the federal government to compliance with a representative collective agreement for the respective industry. Employer President Rainer Dulger had opposed the plans the day before. “Compulsory collective bargaining regulations intervene in the collective bargaining autonomy protected by the Basic Law,” said Dulger, citing a legal opinion commissioned by the BDA.
Fahimi replied: “Employers should get off their ideological steed and face the task that the turning point in work, economy and the world finally needs a new and binding appointment culture.” In Germany, the freedom of association is protected by the constitution – “but no freedom of collective agreements,” Fahimi told the dpa. Freedom of association is the right to form associations.
Fahimi said that the planned Federal Collective Bargaining Act is not about whether a company is directly bound by a collective bargaining agreement. The point is that a public contract only goes to companies that adhere to the core agreements of the relevant collective agreement. “That doesn’t exclude anyone and makes social sense because taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be used to promote wage dumping business models.”
The SPD MP Rosemann said: “Of course, the federal government can make the tariff payment a condition when awarding its own contracts.” Where there are collective agreements, wages are significantly better than the minimum wage. “Good wages also contribute to attracting skilled workers and workers.” Fahimi said: “Something urgently needs to be done about the loss of purchasing power in Germany, which was around 4 percent last year despite the relief packages.” The unions responded with good collective bargaining agreements, but only 51 percent of workers worked under the protection of collective agreements.
