From the perspective of Verdi boss Frank Werneke, a pay increase of 5.3 percent for retail employees is out of the question. Such an offer would be “a slap in the face for retail employees,” he said on Monday. “That’s 92 cents an hour for a saleswoman, and that means a loss of real wages. The employees already receive very low wages, and the inflation of the last few months is eating up wages even more.” The head of the services union was reacting to an initiative by the German Trade Association (HDE).
In the deadlocked collective bargaining dispute in the retail sector, on Monday he recommended that his companies increase wages for employees for the time being, even without a collective agreement. The HDE said it is not foreseeable that the collective bargaining negotiations will reach a solution in a timely manner.
According to a decision by the HDE collective bargaining committee, companies bound by collective bargaining agreements now have the opportunity to pay out “voluntary, creditable advance increases of 5.3 percent” from October 1st at the earliest, it said. (dpa)