Press Release No. 08/2019 IG Metall: Skilled trades workers must receive training

Frankfurt am Main — Digitalization, the energy transition, and the transportation transition will also revolutionize the skilled trades. “Different trades will be affected differently by the transformation. In the automotive trade, a decline in employment is more likely, while in the electrical trade, an increase is more likely—provided the right qualifications are in place,” said Ralf Kutzner, executive board member of IG Metall, on Friday at his organization’s Federal Skilled Trades Conference in Frankfurt am Main.

Qualifications are the key to navigating the transformation. “Employers must secure and further develop their employees’ skills. This requires a major push for skills development,” said Kutzner. He also calls for the introduction of a transformation-related short-time work allowance. The idea is that if a business faces difficulties, employees can gain the skills needed for new tasks and remain with the company.

Deregulation driven by trade guilds and policymakers has gone so far that it now jeopardizes a successful transformation process. Kutzner: “With solo self-employment, the elimination of the master craftsman’s certificate requirement in many trades, and declining collective bargaining coverage, the ecological and digital transformation cannot succeed for businesses and employees.”

The union representative is calling for a new regulatory framework for the industry. Kutzner: “Social partnership requires the joint shaping of social, labor, and economic conditions. Many employers’ associations in the skilled trades apparently no longer wish to participate in this.” Such a regulatory framework would need to curb ruinous competition among providers of skilled trades services and strengthen collective bargaining coverage. Kutzner is convinced that businesses would benefit from this because it would increase the appeal of skilled trades professions.

At the IG Metall Federal Skilled Trades Conference in Frankfurt, which runs through Saturday, 160 works council members and experts are discussing the future of skilled trades work amid the ongoing transformation. Detlef Scheele, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Federal Employment Agency, is also attending the event.

Approximately 5.4 million women and men are employed in the skilled trades, including 2.13 million in companies within IG Metall’s organizational scope. With 441,000 employees, the automotive trade is the largest sector within IG Metall’s organizational scope.