BERLIN, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Baden-Wuerttemberg branch of the metal- and electronics industry trade union IG Metall and the "South-West Metall" employers' association have announced a compromise in their long-standing and widely-publicized labor dispute on Tuesday.
Following 13 hours of negotiations and a series of "warning strikes" across the country, both parties revealed a collective wage agreement which includes higher salaries (plus 4.3 percent) and more flexibility for staff to determine how many hours they work each month. The new industry-wide contract will be valid for 27 months.
Speaking after the protracted but ultimately successful negotiations, "South-West Metall" director Stefan Wolf said that the agreed wage increases were a painful concession for employers. Nevertheless, he praised the long duration of the new contract which would reduce planning insecurity.
"I think the new tariff system is reasonably balanced", Wolf told press.
Similarly, Roman Zitzelsberger, IG Metall's chief negotiator, stressed that the compromise achieved was one that had been hard fought for.
"We struggled on every single detail", Zitzelsberger summarized the experience. In addition to the 4.3 percent wage rise from April 2018, IG Metall convinced "South-West Metall" to pay its employees a one-off remuneration of 100 euros each for the months between January and March.
The settlement further grants both workers and employers more flexibility with regards to working hours. IG Metall achieved one of its key goals in this context of ensuring that certain groups of workers, including shift workers, workers who acted as caregivers to relatives and parents of young children, receive limited compensation for lost wages when they temporarily reduce their hours.
Across Germany, labor and employer representatives offered largely positive commentary on the development on Tuesday.
"Today we have laid the foundation of a flexible working hours system for the 21st century", said Rainer Dulger, president of the national metal industry employers' association ("Gesamtmetall"), noting that the high wage rises reflected the generally good economic situation of his industry.
IG-Metall president Joerg Hofmann described the collective wage agreement as a "milestone on the way to a modern, self-determined working world." According to Hofmann, flexibility with regards to working hours had been an exclusive privilege of employers for far too long.
Both labor and employers' representatives want to reassess the concrete implications of the agreement again in two years, when there will be more evidence on how many workers actually make use of the new provisions offered by the contract.
