Germany: Pay settlements rose in 2007 bargaining round

In December, the trade union-linked Economic and Social Research Institute (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Institut, WSI) published its assessment of collective bargaining on pay in 2007. It concludes that settlements were higher than in 2006, but in the words of Reinhard Bispinck, the head of WSI’s collective bargaining monitoring and analysis division, rising inflation prompted “an increase in the severity of bargaining conflicts, as evidenced in strikes at Deutsche Telekom and in the construction sector”.