In the fifth week of strikes since the beginning of October, the Verdi union has achieved a great success.
From February 2023 there will be negotiations with Verdi on a company wage agreement for the 1700 employees of ComTS, the Commerzbank board announced on Thursday.
In the ComTS service companies, which are organized as subsidiaries of Commerzbank, employees currently without a collective agreement often perform administrative tasks such as mail processing, digitizing documents and processing loan collateral, often with remuneration close to the minimum wage.
So far, the Commerzbank board has rejected Verdi's demands for a 13th month's salary and the abolition of on-demand employment contracts.
In the past three years there have been regular salary adjustments, holiday entitlements have increased and annual holiday and Christmas bonuses have been introduced.
A separate collective agreement for ComTS is not necessary, the working conditions can be “coordinated most effectively with our works councils on site”, was the line up until now.
Now the Commerzbank board is ready to negotiate with Verdi about an in-house wage agreement for the ComTS companies.
Apparently the "processing backlog" caused by the strikes was too big.
In addition, the employee representatives, some of whom on the Commerzbank Supervisory Board felt ignored when looking for the designated new Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Jens Weidmann, were not prepared to make any major compromises.
Verdi had assured that there would be no further strike activity until negotiations began in February, according to Commerzbank's short press release.
The “Verdi Media Info” was out much longer.
It mentions a "breakthrough" several times.
All ComTS employees received two more vacation days in 2023, Verdi announced as a success.
Now Verdi demands an hourly wage of 14 euros as a minimum starting salary.