dm also increases pay
More and more retailers are anticipating collective bargaining agreements
September 21, 2023, 5:19 p.m
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Collective bargaining negotiations in the retail sector have stalled. The HDE industry association is taking an unusual step and recommending that companies implement the previous offer – even without agreement. Verdi has so far rejected the offer. The list of companies that are now raising wages is getting longer and longer.
In the retail sector, the series of unilateral wage and salary increases by companies continues in view of stalled collective bargaining. The dm drugstores have now announced that they will increase payments by six percent retroactively to April 2023. Because of the tough collective bargaining negotiations with the Verdi union, the German Trade Association (HDE) recommended non-tariff increases to companies. Companies bound by collective agreements have the option of paying out “voluntary, creditable advance increases of 5.3 percent” from October 1st at the earliest. Aldi, Rewe and Netto subsequently made use of this
According to its own information, the druggist dm also pays its around 50,000 employees a tax- and duty-free inflation compensation of 650 euros for each full-time employee and 450 euros for trainees. As an additional annual final payment, all full-time employees received 850 euros and people in training received 600 euros, it said. The financial year ends at dm in September and was probably successful. If there is a higher collective bargaining agreement, dm will adjust the increase accordingly, explained a spokesman. The current retail tariff and any tariff increase are therefore contractually guaranteed to the employees.
The food retailer Netto announced the day before that it would pay its employees 5.3 percent more as of October 1st. This applies to all collectively agreed employees in administration, in the markets and in the two Netto logistics centers. Netto therefore wants to ensure that “employees can benefit from a wage increase in a timely manner” in order to cushion the current high inflation, it was said.
The Rewe Group will also increase the wages and salaries of employees at Rewe, Penny, Lekkerland and toom Baumarkt. The company announced that employees in retail should receive 5.3 percent more money and in wholesale 5.1 percent more money. Exactly how many employees will receive the increase was not initially known. Aldi, Lidl, Kaufland and the Otto Group (Otto, Bonprix, Baur) had also announced that they would follow the HDE recommendation and increase fees by 5.3 percent from October.
Verdi wants agreement above the inflation rate
“The percentage values correspond to the current status of employer offers for 2023 in the retail and wholesale sectors and therefore also to the respective recommendations of the trade associations,” said the Rewe Group. In addition, the so-called inflation compensation discount is to be extended by three months until the end of the year. Employees received a ten percent discount on grocery purchases at Rewe and Penny.
The HDE recently accused the union of blocking. Verdi is turning its back on the “now long overdue pacification of this collective bargaining dispute” and it is therefore not foreseeable that collective bargaining will be concluded in a timely manner. They started in April.
The union, in turn, reacted angrily to this development. It is not Verdi that has been blocking the negotiations for months, “but the HDE and thus the employers’ side,” explained Verdi boss Frank Werneke. An offer of 5.3 percent more money in the face of persistent inflation and rising prices would be a “slap in the face for those working in retail.” That means a loss of real wages. “The legitimate expectations of the employees go well beyond the level of the HDE offer.” The union is demanding, among other things, at least 2.50 euros more per hour in retail in all regions and a term of 12 months.