News From Europe - Germany - Federal and local negotiations to begin on 1st March

http://ver-und-entsorgung.verdi.de/tarifarbeit Public services union ver.di is preparing for negotiations over one of the main public sector agreements that will begin on 1st March. These will cover Federal and Local Government; regional government workers are covered by a separate agreement. The collective bargaining committee for Federal and Local Government will meet on 9 February to decide on the main elements of this year’s pay claim. The agreement includes publicly-owned utilities and one of the aims of the negotiations will be to prevent a gap opening up between the public and private sector where pay increases recently have been in the order of 3% or more. Advice EPSU – www.epsu.org