Company alliance for work

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The so-called company alliances for work in Germany are agreements between the employer and the works council : The employees should waive certain rights and receive a job guarantee in return from the employer.

The focus is on reducing labor costs and making working conditions more flexible. Topics are also negotiated which, according to the provisions of the Works Constitution Act, are not subject to codetermination , but to the management's right to direct or to regulation by the collective bargaining parties . This can lead to the limits of applicable collective wage agreements being violated, for example if wages below the tariff are paid. In 1996 there was the case of Viessmann : The employer wanted to build a new plant in the Czech Republic. The works council then negotiated with the company management which cost savings are necessary to make the investment possible in Germany instead. As a result, three hours of free overtime per week were agreed.

In over 30 percent of all companies there are supposed to be company alliances for work, in large companies they exist in almost every second company.

From a legal point of view, company alliances are controversial because, according to some court decisions, they can undermine the autonomy of collective bargaining and in particular can violate the right to freedom of association set out in Art. 9 GG . So exist z. B. controversial judgments of the Federal Labor Court such as the so-called Burda decision of 1999 (BAG, decision of April 20, 1999 - 1 ABR 72/98). In 2003, however, the 4th Senate passed a judgment that was very different from the previous case law of the 1st Senate on the admissibility of an injunction by the trade unions (BAG, judgment of March 19, 2003 - 4 AZR 271/02).

Positions in politics and business

The employers 'side praises company alliances as an important means of modernizing and making the industry tariff more flexible (Federal Association of German Employers' Associations).

The trade unions are critical of company alliances for work. They fear that collective agreements should only provide a non-binding framework.

The CDU and FDP strive to legally secure company alliances for work. The majority in the Bundestag rejected a 2002 draft of a “law to safeguard company alliances for work” by the FDP, as well as a 2003 draft law by the CDU / CSU parliamentary group under the umbrella term “modernization of labor law”, which includes the company alliances for work regulated.

As part of the 2005 Bundestag election campaign, the CDU and FDP announced that, in the event of an election victory, they would legally secure the company alliances for labor and give them a central role in collective bargaining policy. Thereupon Michael Sommer , chairman of the DGB , threatened that - if wage determination were to be relocated to the factories - one would switch to "house-to-house" warfare; he also announced a constitutional complaint. The chairman of the IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie , Hubertus Schmoldt threatened a strike .

literature

  • Haag, Oliver / Wunsch, Nele, company alliances for work. In: Der Personalleiter 2006, Heft 2, S. 55 ff.
  • Flatau, Gero, Company Alliances for Work - End of collective bargaining autonomy? 1st edition 2005. Hamburg: Kovac. ISBN 978-3-8300-1759-2 .