Uncertain times are again approaching Deutsche Bahn passengers.
(Photo: IMAGO/Arnulf Hettrich)
Dusseldorf With a nationwide warning strike, the railway and transport union (EVG) wants to paralyze rail traffic in Germany for 50 hours from Sunday evening. From 10 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday evening, long-distance, regional and freight traffic are affected, as the union announced on Thursday.
For the first time, the EVG is negotiating a package for around 230,000 employees at around 50 rail and bus companies. 180,000 of them are employed by Deutsche Bahn. At the end of March and mid-April, work stoppages had already taken place in rail transport on the initiative of the union.
On Tuesday of this week, the railways had improved their offer again. She suggested that the statutory minimum wage, as required by the EVG, be included in all pay tables. The offered wage increase of ten percent will also benefit the approximately 2,000 employees affected. In addition, it was offered to stipulate in a collective agreement that DB employees would generally earn five percent more than the statutory minimum wage even if there were future adjustments.
Accordingly, Human Resources Director Martin Seiler criticized the renewed threat of strikes as a blockade attitude: “We have again made concessions to the EVG. Announcing strikes as a result is completely exaggerated and completely disproportionate.”
In their concession, which is described as a “historically high offer”, Deutsche Bahn wants to grant inflation compensation of 2850 euros, spread over several months until February 2024. In addition, there will be a ten percent linear wage increase for lower and middle incomes and an eight percent wage increase for upper incomes. A tariff period of 27 months is planned.
The EVG, on the other hand, continues to demand a salary supplement of twelve percent, but at least 650 euros. In addition, the collective agreement should only apply for twelve months.
More: EVG largely paralyzes traffic in Germany