Union: Gastronomy: Collective wage as a compass

Around ten million employees currently work for gross wages of less than 14 euros an hour. This emerges from the “Fairness Check of Work in Germany” carried out by the Pestel Institute in Hanover the food-pleasure-restaurants union (NGG). The report was presented at the NGG trade union conference on Wednesday. Given the requirements to be implemented by the end of 2024 European Union Minimum Wage Directivewhich recommends a lower limit of 60 percent of median income, the 14 euros are to be expected in the future.

But for a poverty-proof pension That’s not enough either, as the figures from the Pestel Institute show. “If an employee has worked full-time for 45 years, then he should earn at least 16.50 euros today in order to receive – based on the current regulations for the statutory pension – a gross pension that, at 1,500 euros, is well above the basic security,” explained the head of the Pestel Institute, Matthias Günther, when presenting the study at the NGG trade union conference in Bremen.

The hospitality industry in particular is characterized by low wages. Before the minimum wage increase last year, according to the Federal Statistical Office, 63 percent of those employed there worked for a wage of less than 12.50 euros. Many collective agreements in the industry also start with starting wages just above the minimum wage.

The contracts also do not reach many employees. According to the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research, around 36 percent of employees in the hospitality industry benefited from a collective agreement last year. In the area of ​​food and beverage production, however, it was 48 percent, roughly as many as the national average, which is 49 percent.

The proportion of skilled workers in the NGG sectors has also declined sharply over the past ten years. In the catering industry it fell from 74 to 46 percent. At the same time, according to a study by the Pestel Institute, fewer and fewer children are coming along. There are over 22 percent fewer trainees in the catering industry than ten years ago, and in food production there is a decrease of 37 percent.

The union around the re-elected chairman, the 52-year-old trained hotel specialist Guido Zeitler, has a lot of work to do. Zeitler secured the support of his union, which has around 190,000 members, on Tuesday with votes from 88 percent of the 147 delegates. Claudia Tiedge (47) and Freddy Adjan (55) were re-elected as deputy chairmen, each receiving over 90 percent of the votes.

Over the next five years, Zeitler wants to primarily address declining collective bargaining coverage. “The collective wage must be the compass for the value of work, not the minimum wage,” he said on Wednesday after his election. According to the old and new NGG chairman, greater income equality would be beneficial for both social cohesion and the finances.

Collective bargaining wages are also an effective means of combating the loss of skilled workers and the lack of young talent, added the re-elected deputy boss Claudia Tiedge. »Employers are still playing poker. They are escaping tariffs. An example of this is the hotel and catering industry. It must be clear to everyone: Anyone who allows people to work and produce under the collective wage radar in the future will sooner or later lose their people. Because job mobility on the labor market will increase. According to calculations by the Pestel Institute, around 12.5 million people in Germany will reach retirement age in the next ten years.

Deputy chairman Freddy Adjan, who was also re-elected, pointed out in his speech on his candidacy on Tuesday that a powerful organization is also required to enforce more collective wages. The employers were not persuaded by good arguments to reach the good conclusions of the last collective bargaining rounds.

According to the labor dispute monitor of the trade union-affiliated Economic and Social Sciences Institute (WSI), the NGG was the most strike-happy German union in 2022 in terms of the number of members. The willingness to strike seems to be paying off – according to Adjan, the NGG has already been able to do so due to the labor disputes in the confectionery industry this year alone Gain 2,500 new members. This year, the union is expecting an overall increase in membership. For the deputy chairman Adjan, one thing is clear: “The most effective way to win members is through collective bargaining.”

NGG Chairman Zeitler is hoping for support from the government in the form of rapid implementation of the collective bargaining agreement agreed in the coalition agreement. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced his commitment to public procurement according to collective agreements in his opening speech at the trade union conference on Monday. Zeitler called on Christian Lindner (FDP) on Wednesday to give up his resistance to the Collective Bargaining Act. But the Chancellor’s appearance didn’t go smoothly either. During Scholz’s speech, members of the NGG youth held up protest posters criticizing the Chancellor’s deportation plans recently expressed to the “Spiegel”.

The NGG union day lasts until this Friday. Until then, the delegates will still discuss 113 proposals.