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Helena Schneider IW-Trends No. 2 29. June 2021 Achieving Flexibility Within Collective Bargaining in the Metal and Electrical Industry: Are Supplementary Agreements a Cure-all?

Companies which are bound by sector-level collective agreements in the metal and electrical industry yet are keen to invest or to protect jobs in times of economic difficulty can negotiate supplementary agreements allowing them to deviate temporarily from the provisions of the sectoral agreements.

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Are Supplementary Agreements a Cure-all?
Helena Schneider IW-Trends No. 2 29. June 2021

Achieving Flexibility Within Collective Bargaining in the Metal and Electrical Industry: Are Supplementary Agreements a Cure-all?

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

Companies which are bound by sector-level collective agreements in the metal and electrical industry yet are keen to invest or to protect jobs in times of economic difficulty can negotiate supplementary agreements allowing them to deviate temporarily from the provisions of the sectoral agreements.

The present article examines how this form of flexibility works in practice. An analysis of almost 400 supplementary agreements shows that working-time and pay provisions are where the main adjustments are made. 44 per cent of the agreements examined extended working hours, while 47 per cent provided for reductions in monthly pay or in one-off payments. Deviations in other areas, such as part-time work for older workers or fixed-term employment contracts, are also possible but were found in only 7 per cent of the agreements under scrutiny. Where employers and the German Metalworkers’ Union are willing to cooperate, a wide range of adjustments are possible. However, especially for smaller companies, the effort involved in negotiating and the commitments required of employer mean that supplementary collective agreements are by no means a panacea

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Are Supplementary Agreements a Cure-all?
Helena Schneider IW-Trends No. 2 29. June 2021

Ergänzungstarifverträge als Allheilmittel?

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

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The Cost Competitiveness of German Industry in Times of Multiple Crises
Christoph Schröder IW-Trends No. 3 21. October 2022

The Cost Competitiveness of German Industry in Times of Multiple Crises

In 2021, German unit labour costs were an average of 13 per cent higher than in the 27 countries in our comparison and 8 per cent higher than in other countries in the Eurozone.

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Helena Bach / Hagen Lesch / Sandra Vogel IW-Analyse No. 148 31. March 2022

The Legitimacy of Free Collective Bargaining in Germany

Since the signing of the Stinnes-Legien Agreement in 1918, the collective bargaining autonomy of Germany’s employers’ associations and trade unions has been the subject of continual political debate and at times its legitimacy even called into question.

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