Trade union and employer have agreed on a collective bargaining agreement in the largest German trade in building cleaning. The agreement was reached on the night of Friday, said a spokesman for the IG Construction-Agro-Environment (IG BAU). Previously, six rounds of negotiations had been fruitless.
The collective bargaining conflict between the IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt and the Bundesinnungsverband des Handwerks had dragged on for many months. The union also accompanied the negotiation rounds recently with warning strikes at various locations, including Frankfurt Airport.
Among other things, a better overtime compensation and higher surcharges for work at night and on Sundays and public holidays have been agreed. In addition, from 2021 onwards, all employees should have a uniform leave of 30 days full-time, no matter how long they have worked in the industry.
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According to the union, a Christmas bonus was also stipulated : all employees should receive Christmas Eve or, alternatively, New Year's Eve as a paid working day this year and next - whoever works receives a 150 percent wage supplement for this day.
"In the end, all our employees have more money in their pockets about the additional regulations and the Christmas bonus," said IG-BAU boss Robert Feiger. However, there is one downside: "We would like to have a fixed and permanent Christmas bonus regulation from 2019 on, so we now have a transitional arrangement."
In the negotiations on the wage agreement in the coming year will also come the topic of Christmas money back on the table, Feiger said. The employer has terminated the wage agreement as of 31 July 2020.