Germany (DE)

Employment
Wages
Working Time
Leave
Social Insurance
Health and Safety
Trade Union Influence
Minimum Standards
Trade Union Participation

Employment

In Germany worker numbers are counted for the individual sectors: agriculture, horticulture, fishery, and forestry. They are broken down into full-time and part-time employees (e. g. persons working half days) and seasonal workers (national workers). Foreign workers (from EU member countries) are recorded separately. The whole industry including agriculture, horticulture, fishery and forestry employs 530,000 workers covered by welfare insurance. 130,000 of them work in agriculture, 230,000 in horticulture and 170,000 in forestry.

The number of workers in permanent employment with welfare insurance is decreasing slightly. Seasonal employment is on the increase. State intervention is designed to increasingly substitute foreign workers by Germans (about 10 % per year). Currently about 270,000 foreign workers are working in agriculture in Germany, 80 % thereof being Polish nationals.

table International Comparison of Employment

Wages and Labour Costs

In Germany the two sides of industry negotiate collective agreements autonomously. In agriculture, horticulture, and in private forestry there are general collective agreements negotiated for individual regions. In agriculture collective negotiations at the national level before any regional negotiations set up a national recommendation which is then implemented in the regions. The collective agreement guideline in agriculture is the national recommendation. In horticulture the union, IG BAU, uses the result of negotiations in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as a guideline. The chart shows the calculated average wage in agriculture.

The development in agriculture in recent years was characterised by business recession. The agreed annual wage increase was merely about 1.6 % (from May 1, 2002 through Dec. 31, 2007). A problem for IG BAU are the low wage groups, which also include the seasonal workers. There are regional differences, e. g. in agriculture: from € 4.46 per hour in Saxony to € 6.39 per hour in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania.

Depending on a worker's marital status and number of children about 10 % of income tax have to paid from the wage.

Since 2005 the companies have been obliged to pay about 40 % of the wage as contributions to the Polish welfare insurance for seasonal workers from Poland. IG BAU assumes that 40-50 % of the companies abide by the collective agreements and that about 60,000 employees (in agriculture) are paid in line with collective agreements. Companies covered by the collective agreements (members of employers' associations) mainly abide by the collective agreements.

table International Comparison of Wages and Labour Costs

Working Time

In German agriculture the theoretical working time is 2,088 hours per year and 40 hours per week. After subtracting public and personal holidays, etc., the calculated number of productive working hours is 1,795 hours per year.

Under the collective agreements a week has 40 working hours, flexibility rules at the company level may provide for 38 to 45h. Usually an overtime bonus is paid for overtime. Working time accounts may be set up for the purpose of flexibilisation (agreed for agriculture as a whole and included in some collective agreements in horticulture).

table International Comparison of Working Time

Leave and Paid Holidays

The German federal states decide on public holidays at the regional as far as they are church holidays. Therefore the number of paid holidays varies widely between the regions (from 8 to 10 days).

table International Comparison of Leave and Paid Holidays

Social Insurance

Germany has a statutory system of welfare insurance with a two-partite contribution scheme. Besides the statutory rules for pension insurance there is an additional agriculture pension fund (ZLA/ZLF). It was established by collective agreements and is mandatory for all employees in the West German federal states and in Thuringia. Beyond that certain collective agreements (not covering all regions and sectors) provide rules for corporate pension schemes and pre-retirement part-time work.

Occupational Health and Safety

In Germany health and safety at work rules are provided by the governmental occupational safety scheme and by the trade associations. The trade organisations are tri-partite organisations formed by entrepreneurs, small farmers and employees. They are in charge of health and safety in companies. Whereas implementing health and safety measures at work is almost no problem in large companies there are frequent problems in small companies.

table International Comparison of Occupational Health and Safety

Trade Union Influence

The number of unionised workers is slightly declining, so the degree of unionisation in agriculture is about 10 %. In horticulture the companies are smaller, unionisation is well under 10 %, and in state forestry it is over 50 %. More than 80 works councils (mostly IG BAU members), mainly in large companies, present the trade union there, thus addressing about 20 % of the employees in agriculture directly.

table International Comparison of Trade Union Influence

Minimum Standards

Germany has by now developed a large low-wage sector, in which about 10 % of all employees are working.

table International Comparison of Minimum Standards

Trade Union Participation

Germany has developed a comprehensive culture of participation that is accepted by all forces of society. However, there are regular attempts, mainly by liberal and conservative forces, to curb industrial co-determination by trade unions. New participation options are opened up by European promotion programmes that reach right into the area of economic co-determination.

table International Comparison of Trade Union Participation

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