Work of the future
Future-oriented employment conditions
Collective bargaining negotiations not yet concluded
Our aim in this collective bargaining negotiation with the German Train Drivers’ Union (Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer; GDL) is to agree a collective wage package that is appropriate to the economic situation in order to ensure DB Groupʼs readiness for the future. The GDL had terminated all relevant collective agreements with DB Group with effect from December 31, 2020 respectively February 28, 2021. The GDL had previously refused to join the Alliance For Our Railway initiated by the Federal Government. The trade union leadership has rejected several offers from DB Group and declared that the negotiations had failed after the fourth round of negotiations. The GDL has initiated a strike ballot and announced strikes.
The German Collective Bargaining Agreement Act applied
Since January 1, 2021, DB Group has had to apply the German Collective Bargaining Agreement Act (Tarifeinheitsgesetz; TEG). As long as there is no joint agreement with both trade unions involved, the TEG is to be applied to DB branches in which the Railway and Transport Workers Union (Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft; EVG) and the GDL represent the same professional groups; 71 of DB Groupʼs 300 branches are affected. At 55 branches, only the regulations with the EVG will be applied in future. At 16 branches, however, train drivers and train personnel are only subject to the collective bargaining agreements of the GDL. DB Group is offering both trade unions an orderly coexistence and is prepared to hold appropriate discussions and conclude agreements.
The future of work and diversity
- The DB team is a reflection of society and is diverse. We employ employees from four generations and over 100 different cultures. We do all of this in well over 500 professional fields and with a high proportion of employees coming from a background of migration. We make a point of encouraging diversity. Diversity is part of our Strong Rail strategy and is firmly anchored in the strategy. One of our targets is to increase the proportion of women in management positions to 30% by 2024. In doing so, we want to become more successful overall and inspire more women to take on management positions. On the occasion of World Womenʼs Day on March 8, 2021, we focused on the topic for a whole month.
- We are convinced that diverse teams are more successful and innovative. To mark Diversity Day on May 18, 2021, DB Group offered employees and the public online events for even greater equal rights and equal opportunities.
- “New work” affects all of DB Groupʼs job profiles and working environments and is an important foundation for achieving a Strong Rail. It was precisely for this reason that the digital conference “New Work Week” was held in June 2021. An interactive program with over 70 items on the virtual agenda from the whole Group was organized under the motto “For employees by employees.”
Smart HR
We are fundamentally modernizing our human resources management by digitalizing a large portion of our human resources processes and transferring them into Oracle Human Capital Management Cloud (HCM). In future, all human resources topics will be accessible via a central access point for employees, executives and HR managers. By switching to cloud-based software, employees can handle their HR matters more efficiently and autonomously. The new platform will primarily be used in the Integrated Rail System in Germany. About 200,000 employees will benefit from this.