Equality, Privatisation, Germany

(May 2017) Two members of ver.di with the support of their union and the DGB confederation have won an important ruling in the European Court of Justice that protects the link between their pay and conditions and the public sector collective agreement. The two hospital employees were part of a transfer to a private company in 1997 but were then transferred again when the Asklepios company won the contract. Asklepios refused to maintain the link with the public sector collective agreement arguing that it was not party to the original negotiations. The European Court decided in favour of the

(January 2017) The government is supporting a bill that would require companies with 200+ employees to provide more transparency on pay so that workers can compare their pay levels and help tackle the gender pay gap. If the bill becomes law it will also require companies with more than 500 employees to regularly report on their pay structure to show that they are complying with equal pay rules. The gender pay in Germany is 21%, higher than the 16.5% average across the EU.