Trade unions: Retail: No progress for Verdi

In the Collective bargaining has been sluggish for months The Verdi union has the retail trade union accused the employers of refusing to talk. “Instead of smokescreens, we need results,” said Verdi federal board member Silke Zimmer to the dpa. The Trade unionist Zimmer responsible for the trade department was responding to discussions by the trade association about a new tariff structure.

In contrast, Steven Haarke, collective bargaining manager for the HDE, said in response to nd’s request: “We have always said that in the new year we will first have to discuss internally how to proceed in the current collective bargaining round.” The consultations were complex and ongoing, they said it. In view of the more than 60 unsuccessful collective bargaining rounds, there is currently no basis for further discussions with the union. “We lack a negotiating partner with the authority to complete the deal,” explained Haarke.

Zimmer, however, described the HDE’s attitude towards the dpa as “scandalous if the result of the first meeting of the HDE’s collective bargaining policy committee in the new year does not offer an appropriate answer to the employees’ problems.” According to Verdi, around 90 percent of employees are at risk of poverty in old age due to low wages. Many worked for low wages and inflation caused significant losses in real wages. “Sometimes the employees don’t know how they’re going to pay their living expenses,” Zimmer said in an interview with “nd.”

The average wage in retail is well below the income in the rest of the economy. A response from the federal government to a query from left-wing politician Pascal Meiser shows that employees in retail earned an average of 77.7 percent of the median wage for the economy as a whole in 2022.

“That’s why sustainable, table-effective wage increases are so important,” emphasized Zimmer, with a view to low incomes. In negotiations, the increases must be achieved through legitimate structures with elected representatives on both the company and union sides, she demanded. Verdi’s state collective bargaining commissions are ready to negotiate and come to a conclusion. Collective bargaining for the nearly five million employees is conducted regionally – on different dates depending on the region.

In the current collective bargaining round, the union is demanding, among other things, at least 2.50 euros more per hour for a term of one year. Depending on the region, there are additional requirements. The employers recently offered an increase totaling 10.24 percent over a two-year term as well as an inflation compensation bonus of 750 euros.

Verdi is increasingly struggling with tariff evasion in the industry. Fewer and fewer retail companies are willing to commit to collective agreements, which is why negotiations are progressing slowly. According to Pascal Meiser from the Left Party, only one in four retail companies were bound by collective agreements in 2022. In 2010, the rate was just under 50 percent, according to figures from Verdi.