Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall, the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (BHI), the European Works Council of Pfleiderer AG, and the management of the wood-based materials manufacturer signed an International Framework Agreement (IFA) on Tuesday in Frankfurt. Under the agreement, the company commits to adhering to minimum standards for working conditions for all employees at its domestic and, above all, foreign locations. Wolfgang Rhode, executive board member of IG Metall, viewed the agreement as an opportunity to establish minimum social standards and workers’ rights within the scope of internationally operating companies in the absence of binding government regulations.
“The global enforcement of minimum standards is intended to prevent international competition and cutthroat competition from turning into a race to the bottom in terms of wages, environmental regulations, or even child labor,” said Rhode. The goal, he explained, is not merely to implement formal rights and enshrine the spirit of participation in a written document, but to translate these into corresponding practices and a corporate culture at all Pfleiderer AG locations and branches. The agreement contains provisions that expand and redefine existing standards. For example, “sustainable corporate development fundamentally takes precedence over short-term profit targets,” Rhode said.
For several years now, trade unions have been pursuing the goal of securing workers’ rights through transnational regulations and protecting employees in multinational companies and their suppliers from exploitation and wage dumping by concluding international framework agreements. This is to be achieved through compliance with minimum standards for working conditions based on the so-called core labor standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO). These include the recognition of human rights, the prohibition of discrimination, child labor, and forced labor; the right of employees to join unions and establish employee representative bodies; the right to fair pay; healthy working conditions; and socially acceptable working hours.
Within the IG Metall union’s organizational scope, the following companies—Schwan-Stabilo, Faber-Castell, Staedtler, Wilkhahn, Pfleiderer AG, Hartmann, Triumph, Volkswagen, Daimler, GEA, Rheinmetall, Bosch, BMW, EADS, Gebrüder Röchling, as well as General Motors Europe and Ford Europe, have concluded an International Framework Agreement to protect employees within their own companies and at their suppliers, and have committed to adhering to minimum standards for all workers.
The Pfleiderer Group, headquartered in Neumarkt, employs approximately 5,600 workers at 22 locations worldwide, including about 2,500 at eight locations in Germany.
