More money for employees of the German slaughter industry

After a long tug-of-war between the companies in the German slaughter industry and the workers' unions involved, an agreement has been reached on raising the minimum wages in the German slaughtering world. Agreements have now been made about gradually increasing wages until 2024.

It took 4 rounds of negotiations to get this far. The position of employees in the German slaughtering world has been much discussed since last year. There were major outbreaks of corona in various slaughterhouses and employees stated that there was a culture of fear. The German government has already decided that from 1 January of this year, slaughterhouses must employ a large part of the staff. Until then, it was customary for slaughter staff to be hired through various temporary employment agencies.

Now it's the turn of the minimum wage
Another thorny issue for the unions was the low minimum wages paid for physically demanding work. New rates have been negotiated in recent months. Now the employers' and employees' organizations have agreed on gradually increasing rewards. As of August 1, a rate of €10,80 will apply, the general minimum wage in Germany is €9,50. This hourly rate will then be slowly increased as of January 1, 2022 (€11,00), December 1, 2022 (€11,50) and December 1, 2023 (€12,30). The agreement will run until November 30, 2024.

Union spokesman Freddy Adjan calls the agreement an important step, but also says that in his view there is still a lot to do. "The new rates are still low given the heavy physical work." He also indicated that agreements still need to be made about, for example, holidays, allowances and working hours.

Spokesperson Vehid Alemić of the interest group for the meat processing industry indicates that for many companies he represents this means that wage costs will rise to almost 30%. Nevertheless, he is satisfied with an agreement because it shows that the sector is going into the future with closed rows and clear agreements. He also praised the generally binding statement, which means that clarity has been created for all employees and employers in the sector.

Steve Wissink

Stef Wissink is an editor at Boerenbusiness and writes about current market developments in the dairy and pig market. He also follows Dutch and international agribusiness.

s.wissink@boerenbusiness. Nl

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