The wage negotiations at Deutsche Bahn are still not settled. But both employers and the union are sending out signals that a solution is imminent.
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in the traintariff conflict no breakthrough has been achieved so far – but more warning strikes will not exist at first either, because a solution is becoming more and more in sight: after five days of negotiations, Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the Railway and Transport Union (ECG) adjourned to next week by mutual agreement. “We negotiated intensively and reached an agreement on many issues,” said DB HR Director Martin Seiler on Friday evening in Berlin.
Initially, the round of negotiations was only scheduled to last until this Friday. Now both parties want to discuss the current status of the negotiations internally and soon come together for further talks. “The goal is in sight,” said Seiler confidently.
“Hard work to find a compromise”
The EVG announced that the labor unioncommittees about the current status at the beginning of next week and will decide on further progress. “As of today, we have laboriously worked out a compromise and pushed ahead with our goal of preventing social disadvantages in the collective bargaining round,” it said. A large number of demands were discussed. Among other things, the area of buses and services were discussed.
“We have worked out numerous compromise lines in the past few days and now want to discuss them in detail with the responsible decision-making bodies,” said EVG collective bargaining board member Kristian Loroch. Most recently, possible pay increases and the duration of the collective agreement are likely to have been the focus – the remaining major sticking points of the conflict.
So far, the EVG has largely paralyzed rail traffic twice with warning strikes. A planned 50-hour strike in May was canceled at short notice after a legal dispute before the labor court in Frankfurt. The union is demanding a wage increase of at least 650 euros per month or twelve percent more for a good 180,000 employees (DB).
Twelve percent more is not enough
Deutsche Bahn had recently offered twelve percent more for the lower wage groups for a period of 24 months. The middle groups should get a total of ten percent more and the upper groups eight percent. The first wage increase in each case should therefore take place this year. There is also a tax-free inflation compensation premium totaling 2850 euros.
On Wednesday, both sides announced that at the beginning of the week there had been detailed discussions about the bus companies of Deutsche Bahn, the freight subsidiary DB Cargo and the internal service providers of the state-owned group. For example, the EVG wants to abolish the regional differences in pay for the employees of the 18 bus companies.