Collective Negotiations on Making Tariff Contracts and Production Agreements in Germany

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of complicated and interesting aspects of conducting collective negotiations on concluding tariff contracts and production agreements in the Federal Republic of Germany. The author scrutinizes the principle of freedom of association and the principle of tariff autonomy which serve as a basis for the legal regulation of collective negotiations. The author does not reduce to the German legislation regulating collective negotiations but compares them to the international standards of labour law and EU law, with an emphasis on Council Directive 94/45 On the Establishment of a European Works Council. The paper touches upon specific features of the special status of the members of the employers' association. Many German associations have stipulated in their constituent documents that their members are entitled to a special status and the tariff contracts made by the employers' association do not spread to it but the employers' association provides the same services as to its members and the organization with a special status is to pay member fees. The author does not reveal the features of the special status of the member of the employers' associations but points to the opinion of the Federal Labour Code which studied the case as to the legality of including new similar provisions to the charters of employers' associations. The author studies the trends and perspectives in the development of the system of the regulation of labour relations in regulating labour relations in Germany and accompanying disputes. On the one hand, the decentralization of collective contracts result in the issues having been regulated by tariff agreements have become the subject matter of industrial agreements concluded at the lever of a company. However, as EU law increases its influence on the German legal system and a large number of transnational corporations emerge, industrial agreements are concluded regulating the working conditions in both Germany and other EU countries. The article may be of interest for specialists an a wide range of readers interested in social partnership and German labour law.