A collective labor agreement has been reached for the approximately 930,000 employees in the German construction sector, the IG BAU union and employers jointly announced on Wednesday.
In the third week of the strikes, both sides agreed on a joint proposal with a term of three years.
The proposal must be discussed in committees until June 14. Until then, industrial action has been suspended.
By the end of the three-year period, wages in Germany’s eastern Länder should be fully aligned with those in the west.
In the first phase, all monthly salaries will increase by a fixed rate of 230 euros, as well as by 1.2% in the west and 2.2% in the east.
The second phase will see a 4.2% increase in the west and a 5% increase in the east on April 1 next year. A year later, wages in the west will rise by 3.9%, with those in the east fully in line with those in the west, according to the plan.
The head of IG BAU, Robert Feiger, considered the agreement a success. “This result exceeds the scope of the arbitrator’s award, which we have always demanded. It was the construction workers who achieved this result through their strikes.”
He said he will recommend the union committees accept the deal.
The employers had rejected the arbitrator’s decision. Negotiator Uwe Nostitz expressed his joy that the wage dispute can now end peacefully. “The sooner our companies and their employees can collectively focus on construction again, the better for the entire sector.”
Jutta Beeke, vice president of the German Construction Industry Association, emphasized the importance of the three-year term. According to her, this creates planning certainty in a tense order situation.
At the beginning of May, the contractual wage arbitration failed. After three failed rounds of negotiations, arbitrator Rainer Schlegel proposed wage increases in two phases on April 19.
Initially, incomes would rise at a flat rate of €250 in May, and again eleven months later by 4.15% in the west and 4.95% in the east.
While IG BAU accepted this proposal, the employers’ organizations rejected it in early May. IG BAU subsequently called for strikes and stuck to their original demand of an additional €500 per month.
