Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

JOBS

Metalworkers’ union reaches wage deal

Metalworkers’ union IG Metall reached a provisional agreement with employers on Thursday after lengthy negotiations for some 700,000 workers in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Published: 18 February 2010 08:28 CET
Updated: 18 February 2010 15:31 CET

Metalworkers' union reaches wage deal

Horst-Werner Maier-Hunke (r) with IG Metall rep after lengthy talks. Photo: DPA

A compromise between the two sides was reached after all-night talks, employer delegation leader Horst-Werner Maier-Hunke told journalists.

Employers and IG Metall negotiated for almost 15 hours beginning on Wednesday evening in a second round of talks over a new wage contract.

“There’s nothing more ambitious than securing jobs during the biggest economic crisis of the last 80 years,” said IG Metall head Berthold Huber.

The agreement includes a pay freeze with a one-time payment of €320 for 2010, with plans to raise wages by 2.7 percent in April 2011. The two sides also agreed early in the discussions to secure jobs for employees in Germany’s most populous state by lowering the costs of a reduced working hours programme. To avoid laying workers off companies will be able to reduce their hours to 28 hours per week for six months.

Metal industry employers’ group Gesamtmetall President Martin Kannegiesser spoke of an “impressive signal of joint crisis management,” adding that the branch had never reached such an agreement so early in negotiations.

The agreement will likely serve as an example for further negotiations with the entire metalworking and electronics industries, which employ some 3.4 million workers in Germany.

For the first time, IG Metall did not take concrete wage increase demands or threats of strike to the negotiation table.

IG Metall leaders in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt said they would strive to emulate the agreement for their 100,000 members when their negotiations with employers begin on February 25 in Hannover.

Regional head Hartmut Meine called the new wage contract a “good deal in a difficult time.”

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Which Bavaria-based companies regularly hire English speakers?

Munich ranks third in German cities with the highest total GDP, behind Berlin and Hamburg, but in terms of GDP per capita, it’s higher than both of them.

It also consistently ranks high, often highest, in terms of average household income.

As of 2023, nine of the 40 companies listed on DAX, Germany’s stock index, were based in Bavaria. Seven of those are based specifically in Munich.

While Frankfurt is commonly known to be Germany’s business capital, Munich can claim the title of Germany’s insurance capital, which is saying something, as Germany is home to some of the largest insurance firms in the world, like Allianz.

Beyond the state’s capital city, a number of international companies are based elsewhere in Bavaria, particularly in the Franken region, near Nuremberg.

Which companies actively hire English speakers?

Bavaria, and Munich in particular, is home to a number of companies at the forefront of international business. But the state is known for its traditional, sometimes conservative, culture, which affects its business culture as well.

Whereas companies embracing English as their primary business language are easy to find in Berlin, the practice is less common in the south. That said, there are some notable exceptions.

Sportswear giants, Adidas and Puma, both have their headquarters near Nuremberg in Herzogenaurach, and regularly recruit English speaking international talent.

“As an international company, our teams reflect the rich diversity of our consumers and communities,” Jon Greenhalgh, Senior Manager Media Relations for Adidas told The Local. “Fostering a culture of inclusion where we value and leverage differences, ensures that we can authentically engage with our employees and truly connect with our consumers.”

He added that around 40 per cent of Adidas’ Germany-based employees are foreign nationals, from over 100 different countries.

Siemens and BMW rank among Bavaria’s top employers, and are also known to hire their fair share of foreigners.

“In Germany, we recently had around 2,000 open positions,” Konstanze Somborn told The Local on behalf of Siemens AG.

He added that Siemens operates in 190 countries. “That is why we value international teams very much…English as a common language is very usual.”

READ ALSO: ‘Which German companies want to hire foreigners?’

Similarly, BMW hires workers from a variety of backgrounds.

“Every year, we hire lots of internationals and welcome them to the BMW Group,” Dr. Hans-Peter Ketterl, a press spokesman for BMW Group told The Local.

But not all of these positions are available to non-German speakers.

Ketterl added that BMW’s working language is German in the country, even though, “English is an indispensable entry requirement as the second corporate language in many areas of the company.”

Check job boards and follow best practices

If it’s your first time applying for jobs in Germany, make sure to change your resume to the German format, even for English positions.

While Germany is home to its own job boards, like Xing, LinkedIn is probably the best place to start. In addition to searching for positions based in your preferred location, you can check relevant groups, like Munich Startups, to broaden your horizons.

The English Jobs in Germany website is also a good resource to start with.

Url copied to clipboard!