The German Retail Association (HDE) has criticized the behavior of the Verdi services union in the context of ongoing collective bargaining for the retail sector.
“In the approximately 45 rounds of negotiations to date, employers have already made several offers nationwide and made improvements, but on the trade union side there is no serious will to reach an agreement,” said the HDE in a statement published on Wednesday, accusing Verdi of “delaying tactics”.
The trade union’s federal headquarters left the individual state committees too little room for maneuver, the industry association complained. In view of this, “one must think about a central negotiation of the retail tariff in the federal government for the future”.
“On the employer side, we are coordinating the first offers to enter the collective bargaining round very closely. But when it comes to finding viable solutions towards the end of the negotiations, all employers’ committees have the necessary legroom,” explained HDE collective bargaining director Steven Haarke in a statement. “That is exactly what is missing on the Verdi side. The trade union commissions seem downright disenfranchised.”
In terms of content, Haarke signaled a willingness to compromise: “We can already imagine a tariff compensation for the currency depreciation for a period of 24 months. This is also shown by our last offer, according to which collective wages and salaries would increase by a total of around 8.5 percent over a period of 24 months,” he explained. “We even clearly signaled that we would be willing to adjust the offer a bit for a deal.”
At the same time, however, Haarke referred to the currently difficult economic situation of many trading companies: “We must not risk excessive demands, their pain threshold has already been maxed out,” he emphasized. “We can therefore not meet unrealistic demands.”