In the collective bargaining negotiations at Deutsche Bahn, the Group presented an initial offer on Tuesday evening. The railway and transport union (EVG) now wants to examine this and submit it to the collective bargaining committees for evaluation on Wednesday morning, a union spokesman said afterwards. Then a decision will be made on how to proceed. Nothing was known about the content on Tuesday evening. Human Resources Director Martin Seiler had previously announced that the offer would address, among other things, the minimum wage issue.
In the negotiations, the EVG is demanding at least 180 euros more pay for 000,650 employees. In the case of higher fees, it wants to achieve an increase of twelve percent over a term of twelve months. It also calls for some structural changes in collective agreements. The railway had rejected the demands as clearly too high. From their point of view, these amount to increases of around 25 percent.
Initial talks between Deutsche Bahn and EVG were interrupted after a short time in Fulda at the end of February. In addition to Deutsche Bahn, the union is negotiating simultaneously with around 50 other railway transport companies. The first round of negotiations with all companies is expected to be completed by 23 March.
Ready for warning strikes
The EVG had demanded an offer from the employers before concrete content could be negotiated. The railway insisted on first talking about the demands. The round of negotiations in Berlin was scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Whether the talks will continue on Wednesday now depends on the EVG's assessment of the offer. Collective bargaining executive Cosima Ingenschay had previously stressed that the workforce was ready for warning strikes. However, she did not name concrete timetables.
From a trade union point of view, one sticking point is the statutory minimum wage. According to the EVG, this is currently only met by a few thousand employees thanks to allowances, but has not yet been included in the income table. The minimum wage issue was also included in the overall offer that the railway had on Tuesday in the luggage, it was already said last week on the part of the group.