Electricity, Digitalisation, Germany

The ver.di services union has negotiated a collective agreement on digitalisation that will cover 126000 workers in the federal government and come into effect on 1 January 2022. It will be applied whenever there are significant changes in workplace requirements or conditions as a result of digitalisation. The union argues that the agreement will allow workers to benefit from the digitalisation process while protecting them from possible risks. It includes mechanisms for securing jobs and providing necessary training while guaranteeing wages. Employees whose job effectively disappears as a

Progress with collective bargaining in the public sector has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Around 2.1 million workers are covered by the agreement for Federal and Municipal government which was last negotiated in 2018 and runs until 31 August this year. The trade union ver.di convened its collective bargaining committee earlier this month where it postponed the decision to formally give notice on the end of the agreement which would start negotiations. There will be an opening discussion with the VKA employers' organisation on 16 June and the collective bargaining committee will

After lengthy negotations, services union ver.di has endorsed a new agreement with the Uniper energy company that it will put to its members over the coming weeks. Key elements of the deal are commitments to no compulsory redundancies and to an early retirement scheme, seen by ver.di as important for the company's coal-powered operations that will face restructuring. This part of the agreement will run to 2022 while the long-term pay deal will run to 2024. The union prevented the company from cutting bonuses like Christmas pay but performance pay will be ended. In 2018 workers will get a lump

(October 2016) The ver.di services union argues that workers and works councils need to have a say in any planned digitalisation of public services. The messages comes after the publication by the interior ministry of an assessment of a project on e-government. Ver.di contacted eight of the local authorities that had been part of the project and found that works councils, workers and their unions had not had any role in the process. The union also called for investment in training for public sector staff as part of process to avoid outsourcing.