2024-03-26 15:50:48
The tariff dispute at the railway is over. There is a deal between the group and the GDL. The 35-hour week is due to come in 2029.
For Deutsche Bahn passengers, some degree of reliability is returning to the rails. The company and the German Locomotive Drivers’ Union (GDL) have settled their months-long collective bargaining dispute with several industrial disputes, as both sides announced in the evening. Further strikes are therefore no longer possible.
“The dispute was tough, but we were now able to agree on an intelligent compromise,” said DB Human Resources Director Martin Seiler. The railway announced that it had agreed with the GDL on a gradual introduction of the 35-hour week.
The head of the train drivers’ union GDL, Claus Weselsky, described the agreement as a success. “We don’t have a failure, but a success, almost across the board,” he said in Berlin. “I’ll start by pointing out that the 35-hour week is also being gradually introduced into the collective agreements at Deutsche Bahn AG and that wages will not be reduced.”
From 2029, a 35-hour week should be possible
The weekly working hours are to be reduced from the current 38 hours in several stages by 2029 to the 35 hours required by the GDL with the same wages. There should be the opportunity to work more hours. Anyone who wants that will earn 2.7 percent more per hour. According to Deutsche Bahn, train drivers with a 40-hour week would earn around 14 percent more from 2029 than with a 35-hour week.
“I am convinced that many of our employees definitely want to work more – at least those are the signals we are receiving,” said Seiler. Since the scope of the vacation choice model was reduced as part of the collective bargaining agreement, “we are convinced that we can provide these capacities.”
The first step towards a 35-hour week is to be reduced to 37 hours at the beginning of 2026. From 2027 onwards, there will be a further reduction to 36 hours, from 2028 to 35.5 and from 2029 to 35 hours. According to Bahn, both parties have also agreed on a salary increase of 420 euros per month in two steps. From August 1st there will be 210 euros more per month, and from April 1st 2025 the same amount will be added again.
Passenger association relieved
GDL boss Weselsky points out that the union was unable to prevail on only one point: the GDL will not conclude any collective agreements for employees in the infrastructure in the future. Weselsky admits that too few employees in this area took part in the labor disputes to justify such an expansion.
The Pro Bahn passenger association praised the agreement. “This is a real relief for the passengers,” said the association’s chairman, Detlef Neuß, to the “Rheinische Post”. However, the agreement could have been reached “without so many strikes”.
Six strikes during the collective bargaining dispute
A total of six times, labor disputes by the GDL led to significant restrictions for rail customers in the collective bargaining dispute that has now ended. Most recently, union boss Claus Weselsky announced strikes at much shorter notice than before. A rapprochement between the two sides was not foreseeable for a long time. There was already hope in February, when both sides negotiated for weeks behind closed doors and with the help of external moderators. But the talks ultimately collapsed at the beginning of March. The next strikes followed.
A little over a week ago, Bahn and GDL surprisingly announced together that they were negotiating with each other again. And they expressed confidence that there could be a solution this time. In addition to the question of reducing working hours, the term of a future collective agreement was also controversial. In addition, the GDL originally demanded 555 euros more per month as well as a tax- and duty-free inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros.