Negotiations to conclude a new collective wage agreement for the security industry in North Rhine-Westphalia took place in Neuss on 6 March 2023. As early as 2021, the BDSW and ver.di had jointly agreed to reform the collective wage agreement with regard to content, structures and remuneration. However, no result could be achieved in four structural talks and negotiations, so that there will now be no salary increases this year, at least in terms of collective agreements.
The bargaining committee reacted with complete incomprehension to the fact that ver.di broke off the negotiations after 17 minutes. “We offered ver.di a modern reform of the collective agreement on salaries, which now provides for the same remuneration for the same work. Previous differences in remuneration for the same work of in some cases more than 25 % due to seniority steps alone and collectively agreed advancements only due to the passage of time are neither up-to-date nor fair,” said Gunnar Vielhaack, Chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalia regional group in the BDSW. The new structure could have brought a salary increase of up to 13.5% in one fell swoop to the lower seniority grades retroactive to 1 January 2023. In order to also take into account the interests of the longest-serving colleagues, the BDSW Collective Bargaining Commission proposed a dynamic grandfathering for them. This would have meant that every pay increase would have led to an actual pay increase for these employees as well – for a few transitional years to a reduced extent compared to the other colleagues, but then again in full.
Gunnar Vielhaack emphasised that without exception every employee would have benefited from a higher level of collective bargaining protection through the collective agreement offered.
“Due to ver.di’s behaviour, which is difficult to understand, there will be no new collective agreement for salaried employees in 2023, but every company will implement what is offered to its employees even without a collective agreement,” Vielhaack concluded.
