In Germany, the trade union Verdi has reached an agreement with employer associations in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg to finalise collective bargaining agreements for retail workers.

The terms of the agreements include a 40 per cent increase in the collective agreement’s pension scheme from €300 to €420 per year. This figure, said Verdi, amounts to a 14 per cent increase.

Silke Zimmer, ver.di federal board member responsible for the retail sector, said: “This is an important contribution to protecting the many women in retail from old-age poverty.”

She added: “The credit for this achievement belongs to our active colleagues in the workplaces who fought for these agreements with strikes and actions across all regions for over a year. Every euro and every percentage point of these agreements were hard-fought. As a result, employees are receiving significantly more money and a noticeable increase in their pension benefits for the time after their working life.”

The agreements state that wages will increase in Berlin and the neighbouring state of Brandenburg by 5.3 per cent, retroactive to last October, with an additional 4.7 per cent from this month. From September next year, monthly wages will be increased by €40, plus 1.8 per cent. The €120 pension increase will come into effect from next January.

The increased wages and pension contributions come against a backdrop of economic uncertainty in Germany. According to the federal statistics office, the CPI in Germany has fallen now to 2.2 per cent after reaching 8.8 per cent in October and November 2023.

The country’s pension system is also grappling with what to do around its ageing population. In May, the broadcaster Deutsche Welle said that the beginning of the 1960s saw six actively insured workers for every pensioner. That ratio has since shifted to two workers for every pensioner.

Deutsche Welle wrote: “A considerable chunk of the federal budget goes into propping up the pension system: €127bn ($138bn) will flow into the retirement fund in 2024, a third of all government spending. This sum is estimated to almost double by 2050, which is bad news in times of high expenditure in other areas such as defense.”

Meanwhile, collective bargaining negotiations are still ongoing for workers in the wholesale and foreign trade sectors in several federal states. These workers represent about one-third of the approximately five million employees in the trade sector. These current negotiations between Verdi and employers has, according to the union, been ongoing for more than one year and covers around one-third of Germany’s five million retail workers.

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