As of: March 26, 2024, 3:59 a.m
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Split
The railway, led by human resources director Martin Seiler (r), and the GDL, led by boss Claus Weselsky (l), want to announce today what exactly the collective bargaining compromise looks like.
© Fabian Sommer/dpa
The tariff dispute at the railway is over.
There is a deal between the group and the GDL.
It will be known today whether the railway has finally given in completely to the working time requirements.
Berlin - Some reliability is returning to the rails for Deutsche Bahn passengers.
The company and the German Locomotive Drivers' Union (GDL) have settled their months-long collective bargaining dispute with several industrial disputes, as both sides announced in the evening.
Further strikes are therefore no longer possible.
Bahn and GDL want to announce exactly what the tariff compromise looks like in separate press conferences today.
Until then, the main question that remains open is whether or not the GDL was able to fully enforce its core demand for a reduction in weekly working hours for shift workers from 38 to 35 hours with the same wages.
Six strikes
A total of six times, labor disputes by the GDL led to significant restrictions for rail customers in the collective bargaining dispute that has now ended.
Most recently, union boss Claus Weselsky announced strikes at much shorter notice than before.
A rapprochement between the two sides was not foreseeable for a long time.
There was already hope in February, when both sides negotiated for weeks behind closed doors and with the help of external moderators.
But the talks ultimately collapsed at the beginning of March.
Strikes followed again.
A little over a week ago, Bahn and GDL surprisingly announced together that they were negotiating with each other again.
And they expressed confidence that there could be a solution this time.
In addition to the question of reducing working hours, the term of a future collective agreement was also controversial.
In addition, the GDL originally demanded 555 euros more per month as well as a tax- and duty-free inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros.
GDL rejected compromise
The compromise proposal from the mediators in February envisaged a gradual increase in wages and salaries by 410 euros.
There should be 200 euros more on August 1st of this year, 210 more euros on April 1st, 2025. The term of the contract would have been 30 months.
But the GDL didn’t agree to that.
The collective bargaining dispute began at the beginning of November.
After the second round of negotiations, Weselsky declared the talks had failed and initiated a strike vote on indefinite strikes in December.
Rail customers now have the all-clear until at least next spring.
There are no further rounds of collective bargaining at the railway this year.
The collective agreement with the larger railway and transport union (EVG) runs until the end of March 2025. Only then will industrial action be possible again.
dpa