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Berlin Central Station: Bahn hopes for negotiation results in the coming week
Photo: Carsten Koall / picture alliance / dpa
In the collective bargaining dispute at Deutsche Bahn, both sides are resuming negotiations.
The company and the train drivers' union GDL are confident that they will be able to announce a result in the coming week, the railway said on Saturday.
The union is refraining from further strikes for the duration of the talks.
The GDL has already called for industrial action six times in the current collective bargaining dispute.
Most recently, the union resorted to a so-called wave strike, which it announced at much shorter notice than previous strikes.
The negotiations in the smallest circles were intensive but constructive, the railway said, and an agreement had already been reached on many topics.
There will be no public communication about the status as the collective bargaining parties have agreed to maintain secrecy.
The crux of the negotiations was the reduction in working hours
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The two sides most recently sat together behind closed doors for several weeks in February to find a solution to the collective bargaining dispute.
The former Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière and Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther (both CDU) mediated this phase.
It initially remained unclear whether the two would appear as moderators again in this round of negotiations.
This time too, despite this possibility, it will not be a formal arbitration.
The GDL in particular has so far rejected this.
In such a case, both sides would first reach an arbitration agreement.
This often means that an arbitrator's decision is binding for both sides.
This did not apply to the compromise proposal that de Maizière and Günther made in the most recent round of negotiations.
The union therefore did not accept it.
The crux of the negotiations recently was the dispute over a reduction in working hours for shift workers from 38 to 35 hours per week, as demanded by the GDL, with the same salary.
The railway had previously shown itself ready to reduce working hours to 36 hours in two steps by 2028 without financial losses.
However, GDL boss Claus Weselsky did not accept this.
The union has already concluded collective agreements with more than two dozen other railway companies that stipulate the 35-hour week.
However, these are subject to the condition that the railway also agrees to such a deal.
Otherwise, the existing contracts would be adjusted accordingly.
Weselsky wants to prevent that.
Economics expects agreement
The ongoing strikes at Lufthansa and Deutsche Bahn are worrying employers.
The Federal Association of Employers' Associations (BDA) warns of noticeable negative consequences for Germany as a business location and the economy.
“The strikes in the critical infrastructure are not only annoying, they are also a brake on growth,” said BDA managing director Steffen Kampeter to the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”.
“The economic damage not only affects the companies directly affected, but also the entire economy.”
“The damage caused by the GDL strike last week alone is estimated at 100 million euros per day,” Kampeter continued.
"The loss of trust in the reliability of the infrastructure is a disadvantage for the location." The actions of the service union Verdi, the train drivers' union GDL and the flight attendant union UFO are "disproportionate."
Kampeter called for reforms to the right to strike.
"We need clear industrial action law, especially for the railways and comparable areas," he said.
The economist Veronika Grimm told the "Rheinische Post" on Friday that, in view of the debate about changes to the right to strike, she expected Verdi and the GDL to give in to the current collective bargaining disputes.
»The right to strike enjoys a high level of protection, and that's a good thing.
But if the strikes increasingly put a strain on competitiveness, it is of course possible that the legislature will intervene and adjust the regulations.”
“So one could of course come up with the idea of prescribing an arbitration procedure before the strike,” said the member of the Economic Advisory Council.
»So far it has not been necessary to precede an arbitration procedure before an industrial dispute.
Ultimately, the unions, especially in the rail and aviation sectors, will have an incentive not to let things get to that point.
abl/hen/dpa