What is likely to feel like a belated Easter gift for dual students in the wood and plastics industry in Lower Saxony should actually have been a given long ago. We’re talking about fair, binding, and uniform rules for dual study programs.
In the Lower Saxony collective bargaining area, we have now succeeded for the first time in concluding a regional collective bargaining agreement for dual students in the wood and plastics processing industry—thereby creating predictable framework conditions for their training across all sectors.
The key provisions of the collective bargaining agreement are:
Uniform and living-wage training stipends
During their training, dual students receive the training stipends specified in the collective bargaining tables for their respective trades. After successfully completing their vocational training and passing the final chamber examination, they are paid the stipend for the fourth year of training.
Relief from training costs
Tuition and fees are covered in full by the company. In justified cases, extraordinary travel and training expenses are also subsidized upon request.
Secure and Predictable Future Prospects
Upon successful completion of their studies within the standard period of study, dual students are offered a permanent employment contract or, at a minimum, a fixed-term contract for 24 months—no later than three months before the end of their training contract.
Standard Vacation Entitlement
Dual students are entitled to 2.5 days of vacation for each calendar month they are present at the company during the practical training phases.
However, many industries are still a long way from offering such uniform and fair conditions for dual students. Where we have not explicitly negotiated a collective bargaining agreement for them, their training conditions vary from company to company.
“Individual contracts regulate issues such as compensation levels, vacation days, special payments, or the coverage of tuition and student fees in very different ways—or not at all,” says David Rösler of IG Metall in Braunschweig, who helped negotiate the new regional collective bargaining agreement.
Until now, sector-wide collective bargaining agreements had only been in place in the metalworking trades and the automotive trades in Lower Saxony, as well as in the precision engineering and metal construction sectors in Baden-Württemberg. Now, they also apply to the wood and plastics processing industry in Lower Saxony.
In addition, IG Metall has concluded in-house collective bargaining agreements and wage agreements for dual-track students with a number of companies—most recently with the technology group Continental.
“Our goal, however, is to ensure reliable and transparent working conditions for all dual-track students—not just in individual companies, but across the board, as we have now succeeded in doing in the wood and plastics industry in Lower Saxony,” said Rösler.
It would be even simpler if lawmakers would finally recognize the growing importance of dual study programs and include dual students in the Vocational Training Act. Then not only would their status under labor law be clarified, but dual students would—just like dual trainees—fall under the scope of existing collective bargaining agreements. However, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has so far rejected a reform of the Federal Education Act.
