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Thousands of metalworkers to down tools this week

Thousands of German metalworkers will down tools for a day from Tuesday evening, as their powerful union flexes its muscles in a battle with bosses for higher pay and more generous conditions.

Published: 31 January 2018 08:50 CET
Thousands of metalworkers to down tools this week
Workers striking in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein on 31st January. Photo: DPA

Union IG Metall announced 24-hour “warning strikes” by workers at more than 250 firms this week, after talks with employers over their demands for a six-percent pay rise and the option to go part-time for up to two years fell through Saturday.

Some walkouts, including at industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp and auto
supplier ZF Friedrichshafen, will begin as early as Tuesday evening.

“No one wants a big industrial dispute,” union leader Joerg Hoffmann told Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper.

He said the stubbornness of management left “no way out” but strikes in the union's battle on behalf of almost four million workers.

“The business environment is fantastic, companies' earnings are extremely good, and they're making us an offer (on pay) that doesn't even make up for inflation over the 27 months it would run,” Hoffmann said.

It is the first time IG Metall has made use of the one-day strikes.

Unlike in shorter previous walkouts, workers will be compensated from union coffers for their loss of pay from the 24-hour industrial action.

And beyond the warning strikes, IG Metall also warned it is prepared for an open-ended strike across the metalworking sector — a pillar of the German economy — from next week.

Aside from pay hikes, a major sticking point in talks has been IG Metall's insistence that workers should have the option to switch to 28-hour weeks at will for up to two years, with a guarantee of returning to full-time work afterwards.

The employee representatives are also pushing for firms to top up the pay packets of workers who take that option to care for children or other dependents, or who use it to seek relief from the toughest jobs.

Bosses have insisted that such a move would be discriminatory towards workers who have gone part-time under less generous terms, and possibly even illegal.

“IG Metall's refusal (to negotiate), their ultimatum and their breaking off talks show they just want to strike for the sake of it,” Bertram Brossardt, director of Bavarian metalworking sector employers' association VBM, said in a statement.

In a separate industrial dispute, IG Metall announced workers at Volkswagen would walk out Thursday after pay and conditions talks with the world's largest carmaker stalled.

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VISAS

Germany or Austria: Where is it easier to get an EU Blue Card?

The EU Blue Card is a common way for skilled non-EU workers to come to European countries like Germany and Austria. But where is it easier to get one?

Published: 9 March 2023 10:59 CET
Germany or Austria: Where is it easier to get an EU Blue Card?

Though obvious friends with a deeply linked history, Germany and Austria are competing against each other in the global race for skilled workers. Germany needs as many as 400,000 new skilled workers a year to plug its labour market gap. There are over 100,000 vacancies in Austria – a country of just nine million people.

What eligibility rules for an EU Blue Card are there in each country?

In Germany, nationals from countries that need a visa to enter, which includes most non-EU countries, first need to apply for a visa that will allow them to take up gainful employment – which could include a jobseeker’s visa.

After that, they can make an appointment at their local immigration office to obtain an EU Blue Card. If someone is a national of a country that doesn’t need a visa to enter Germany, such as an EU/EFTA state or a handful of non-EU countries like the USA, Canada, Japan and the UK, they can apply for their EU Blue Card after arriving in Germany.

For many EU Blue Card applicants in Germany, they’ll need to have:

  • A university degree linked to their job
  • A job offer with a proposed salary of at least €56,400 a year

However, the salary requirement drops to €43,992 annually if the applicant is filling a job in a profession experiencing a particular shortage in Germany. These include doctors, engineers, IT specialists, mathematicians and natural scientists.

A key factor here is whether someone looking to get an EU Blue Card is a national of a country that needs a jobseeker visa to enter Germany in the first place. People from these countries (which includes most non-EU countries) may have a slightly tougher time. That’s because, in addition to fulfilling the requirements of an EU Blue Card, they’ll need to have a few extra things to get the German jobseeker visa. These are:

  • proof of German language skills (typically B1 level)
  • proof of ability to pay living costs

Additionally, people older than 45 and coming to Germany for the first time on a work visa need an offer with an annual salary of at least €46,530.

The German city of Munich.

The German city of Munich. Photo by ian kelsall on Unsplash

Another thing to keep in mind is that the German government is currently trying to push through a reform of the immigration laws, which aims to make it easier for skilled workers from abroad to enter the country. As part of this reform, the rules for IT professionals are set to be relaxed so that people with career experience or skills can be accepted for a Blue Card without a university degree. 

READ ALSO: What’s in Germany’s new draft law on skilled immigration?

By contrast, as things stand at the moment, Austria’s EU Blue Card salary requirements are slightly easier, even if other factors remain the same. You can also apply for it at an Austrian mission abroad before arriving. You’re eligible for an EU Blue Card in Austria if:

  • You have a university degree which matches your job OR
  • If applying to the IT industry, you have three years of relevant experience, as long as you’ve earned those in the last seven years.
  • A job offer with a proposed gross salary of at least €45,595 a year

So, Austria’s overall annual salary requirement is more than €10,000 lower than Germany’s – unless the applicant is in a skilled profession the German labour market is particularly short of. In that case, their salary requirement for an EU Blue Card in Germany is around €1,500 less than in Austria – but only for those professions.

READ ALSO: How Austria is making it easier for non-EU workers to get residence permits

However, one key factor in Austria is that the company offering the job needs to prove that there are currently no Austrian residents unemployed and registered with the employment agency AMS that could fit that particular position.

According to the Austrian authorities, one of the main requirements is that “the labour market test (Arbeitsmarktprüfung) shows that there is no equally qualified worker registered as a jobseeker with the Public Employment Service (AMS) available for the job.” This could be particularly tricky to prove.

What privileges exist for those are already hold an EU Blue Card?

Other than the obvious right to live and work in the country for at least two years, EU Blue Card holders in Germany are typically eligible for permanent residence much earlier than normal.

While a regular applicant is eligible after at least five years in Germany, EU Blue Card holders can apply for permanent residency after 33 months – or just under three years. Blue Card holders who demonstrate good German language skills – such as by passing a certified language test – can get permanent residence after 21 months, or just under two years in Germany.

EU Blue Card holders in Austria can apply to stay longer than two years with another special card – the Red-White-Red Card Plus. Germany, by contrast, makes permanent residence available quickly. (Photo by Pixabay / Pexels)

After 21 months of working in Austria under an EU Blue Card, you can apply for a Red-White-Red Card Plus. This card gives you unlimited access to the Austrian labour market and the right to stay with similar conditions to those enjoyed by permanent residency holders in Germany. However, it runs out in Austria after a year.

After two years of legal residence in Austria and completion of an integration module, you can get a Red-White-Red Card Plus that’s valid for three years. It takes people five years of residence in Austria to qualify for permanent residency, so a Blue Card and then a Red-White-Red Card Plus can potentially give someone a path to permanent residency in Austria. However, the path requires more bureaucratic steps than in Germany.

The eligibility versus rewards trade-off

Ultimately, an EU Blue Card is a bit harder to get in Germany than in Austria for non-EU skilled workers in most professions, when it comes to the minimum salary requirement being higher. However, Austrian companies need to prove that a candidate offers something no other unemployed person in Austria can offer.

That said, those who do get the EU Blue Card in Germany have an easier, more guaranteed path to permanent residence in Germany, much sooner than in Austria.

We should note though, that both countries have other types of work visas for people who don’t qualify for the EU Blue Card.

READ ALSO: How to apply for Germany’s new ‘opportunity card’ and other visas for job seekers

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