More salary, more home office
Verdi and banks agree on collective bargaining dispute
4/1/2022 12:56 p.m
Verdi and the public banks argued for nine months. Now both sides agree on a new collective agreement for a good 60,000 bank employees. But that’s not all: Verdi is now calling the private banks “back to the negotiating table.”
The employees of state and development banks as well as several savings banks in Germany will receive more money and will be able to work from home more often in the future. The sixth round of collective bargaining for the public banks on Thursday in Frankfurt brought the breakthrough in the talks that had been going on since the end of June last year, as both sides announced.
Specifically, the collective bargaining parties agreed on a salary increase of three percent from July 2022 for the 60,000 employees and a further two percent increase from July 2023. In addition, after the Corona special payment of 750 euros granted in March, there is a further 300 euros once in April. From January 2024, the weekly working time will be reduced by one hour to 38 hours. The collective agreement runs for 35 months until May 31, 2024.
“This result was achieved after very tough and protracted negotiations, and the pressure from the many strikes that the workers had previously gone into has certainly contributed to this,” summarized the negotiator of the Verdi union, Jan Duscheck. Gunar Feth, chief negotiator on the part of the Federal Association of Public Banks in Germany (VÖB), said that together we managed to put together a “very good salary package” that noticeably cushions the consequences of inflation for the employees of the public banks and recognizes their achievements “.
Negotiations with private banks falter
Verdi went into the negotiations with a demand for 4.5 percent more money, but at least 150 euros more per month. The German Bank Employees Association (DBV) wanted 4.8 percent plus. A major topic of the negotiations was mobile working. Verdi wanted employees to be able to work mobile for up to 60 percent of their working hours. A contractual right has now been agreed to be able to work up to 40 percent of the working time on the go.
For the first time since 1972, the Collective Bargaining Association of Public Banks represented its currently 43 member institutes independently. The separately ongoing negotiations for 140,000 employees of private banks in Germany have come to a standstill. Verdi negotiator Showerck called on the employers’ association of the private banking industry (AGV Banken): “Come back to the negotiating table.” The financial statements for the public institutes and before that for Postbank proved “that fair and viable compromises are also possible in the banking industry in these times”.