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Deutsche Bahn seeks emergency court injunction against rail strikes

German rail operator Deutsche Bahn said Thursday it will take legal action to end strikes as train drivers began five days of walkouts on passenger services in an ongoing pay dispute.

Published: 2 September 2021 11:30 CEST

Deutsche Bahn seeks emergency court injunction against rail strikes

Commuters in Munich on Thursday. Photo: dpa | Peter Kneffel

The ongoing strike action was not within “the relevant legal framework”, said Martin Seiler, personnel director for Deutsche Bahn.

“Therefore we must act in the interest of our customers and employees and allow the strike to be legally reviewed,” he said.

The Frankfurt am Main labour court will rule on the urgent application this evening, it confirmed on Thursday. The hearing on the interim injunction is scheduled to begin at 6 pm.

The latest walkout is the third strike in a month on German rail, and the longest yet, with the action set to last until the early hours of Tuesday morning next week.

Deutsche Bahn published the terms of a new offer to train drivers on Wednesday evening, as the strike began on cargo services, but it was rejected by the unions.

The rail company had proposed bringing forward a 3.2 percent increase in drivers’ salaries and agreed to coronavirus-related bonuses of up to 600 euros – a demand made by the union.

“We have now presented the third improved offer – without the GDL seriously entering into negotiations with us,” said Seiler.

“No person and no union on this planet could accept this offer,” Claus Weselsky, head of the GDL union, told German public television.

“The bad news for passengers — the strike continues,” he said.

As in previous strikes, around a quarter of normal long-distance services will run, while about four in ten regional and urban commuter trains will be operating as normal.

The strike action began on August 10 after union members voted 95 percent in favour, following the collapse of pay talks with Deutsche Bahn.

The last major conflict between unions and Deutsche Bahn took place in 2014-2015, when over nine months GDL organised nine rounds of strikes to demand regulatory reforms.

READ MORE: Here’s how to navigate the Deutsche Bahn train strikes in your region of Germany

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German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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