Over 1,500 new members in one year—and that’s at an IT service provider. Dieter Domabil doesn’t believe anything like this has ever happened in this industry before. Domabil is the head of the shop stewards at Atos AIS in Fürth. IG Metall and Atos employees spent a year negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. Throughout that time, they watched as membership numbers grew.
In 2011, Atos acquired Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS). The result was Germany’s third-largest IT service provider, Europe’s fourth-largest, and a tangled web of lingering collective bargaining agreements and individual contracts. The former Siemens employees brought an IG Metall collective bargaining agreement into the new partnership, while the employees of Atos AIT had none. Wilfried Hardt, deputy works council chair at Atos AIT in Hamburg, saw this as an opportunity. “We had long wanted to move away from a situation where the employer alone decides on pay raises. But the company wasn’t willing to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement.” After some negotiations, the employer relented and joined the employers’ association. A collective bargaining agreement has now been in effect at Atos since July 1.
Regional Collective Bargaining Agreement
IG Metall concludeda regional collective bargaining agreement for IT servicesin North Rhine-Westphalia with the employers’ association Metall NRW . This agreement is modeled after the regional collective bargaining agreement for the metal and electrical industry in North Rhine-Westphalia. The advantage over a company-specific collective bargaining agreement is that Atos employees automatically benefit from the wage increases. Atos employees’ wages increased by 3.4 percent as of September 1. In June 2014, they will receive a 2.2 percent raise. Another advantage is that other IT companies can join the collective bargaining agreement.
Income
At Atos, there are so-called pay bands for each salary group. Within the limits of a band, employers and employees can agree on individual pay levels. In each round of collective bargaining, the total salary increases. “We also wanted to make the system fairer,” says Hardt. “That’s why we agreed: While extreme outliers at the top and bottom will receive more money, they will move closer to the middle.” The benefits of the collective bargaining agreement now also apply to some employees who were previously excluded from it.
Working Hours
IT professionals, in particular, often let their time accounts run over. “We wanted to move away from self-exploitation,” says Hardt. At Atos, employees now maintain two accounts: one for flex time and one where their overtime is credited. If employees are required to work longer hours for a project, for example, their supervisor must submit a request to the works council. The hours are credited to the overtime account. Half of these hours must be compensated for twice a year.
Atos has moved away from a uniform workweek. Contracted working hours range from 35 to 40 hours, with the standard being a 37.5-hour week. After the probationary period, employees can choose their contracted work hours. IG Metall and employers will develop additional models. The goal: to better balance work and life.
IG Metall did have to make some compromises. But given what has been achieved, Domabil considers this acceptable. The number of new members joining the union shows that IT workers are satisfied with the collective bargaining agreement.
