Industrial Action : Germany

In Germany, industrial action may only be taken in connection with collective wage agreements. It is therefore restricted to the parties to those agreements. During the life of a collective agreement, the parties thereto are obligated to maintain industrial peace. This means that industrial action cannot be called on matters covered by agreements still in force. In order to prevent industrial action, in many cases provision has been made for arbitration if the two sides cannot agree. Under the rules of most unions, the members have to be balloted. Only if a qualified majority are in favor may a strike be called.

The workers’ right to strike is counterbalanced by the employers’ right to lock them out. Within certain limits, lockouts have been upheld by the Federal Labor Court and the Federal Constitutional Court as permissible means of industrial action, but the issue is still controversial. As the state remains neutral in labor disputes, neither strikers nor locked-out workers receive unemployment benefits. Union members receive strike pay from the unions’ strike funds for loss of earnings, but non-members get nothing. During a strike, they must either live on their savings or apply for social assistance.