Employees renounce to around five percent of their annual income
Hamburg - 27 October 2012. On Friday evening (26 October 2012), Praktiker AG and the ver.di trade union concluded a restructuring collective agreement on a temporary employee contribution to the restructuring of the Group. Based on this agreement, personnel expenses for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 in Germany can be reduced by 17.3 million euro each. The agreement is coming into force with immediate effect.
This cost reduction is achieved by cutting all employee
remunerations covered by collective wage agreements and
those exempted from them by around five percent. With this
measure, it is ensured that the employee contributions to
the restructuring of the Group are adapted in a socially
compatible way to the income levels. The necessary savings
are mainly achieved by reducing or scrapping the Christmas
pay as well as collective agreement-related or
company-specific bonuses. For those employees with wages
exempted from collective agreements, also bonus and profit
sharing cutbacks are conceivable. Collectively agreed
monthly salaries will not be affected by this agreement. In
return, employees receive extensive workplace and
employment protection during the term of the restructuring
collective agreement.
"After securing the main cornerstones of the financing
concept, this represents another milestone on the road
towards restructuring our company and securing its future.
By temporarily renouncing to part of their incomes, the
employees of Praktiker AG in Germany are making an
important contribution to securing jobs", stressed the
CEO of Praktiker AG, Armin Burger. He thanked the wage
bargaining committee form ver.di for their cooperative
approach and always constructive negotiations that allowed
arriving at this solution which is viable for both
sides.
Negotiations with ver.di had started in April 2012 and
could be concluded successfully on Friday evening shortly
after the company had reached agreements with key investors
and banks about the financing of the restructuring
programme. In Germany, the Praktiker Group has a workforce
totalling around 15,000 employees.
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