Press Release No. 05/2010 IG Metall Chairman Huber: “With the right tools, employment can be safeguarded through the crisis...”

Düsseldorf – IG Metall President Berthold Huber has described the collective bargaining agreement reached in the metal and electrical industry in North Rhine-Westphalia as a “good result.” “With the tools we’ve identified, employment can be secured through the crisis. It is now up to the companies to make use of these tools,” Huber said Thursday in Düsseldorf. What could be more innovative than securing employment during the world’s biggest economic crisis in 80 years, the union leader emphasized.
The pay increases safeguard real wages and demonstrate that a “fair distribution of the burden” has been achieved. “And that’s worth a great deal.”

A third party—the political sphere—must also step in to ensure this fair burden-sharing. “For these tools to truly become widespread, lawmakers must help,” Huber said.
Huber reiterated the call for a temporary special provision that would synchronize the reimbursement of social security contributions with the 18-month period of short-time work. Furthermore, he noted, the instrument of collectively bargained short-time work would only be fully usable if the agreed-upon partial wage compensation were also temporarily exempted from social security contributions.