Hamburg/Frankfurt am Main – Collective bargaining agreement for employees in the metal and electrical industries: You can expect higher wages, more and better options to choose between time and money, and significantly increasing training remuneration. The IG Metall districts of the coast and Bavaria agreed on this early on Tuesday morning after 18 hours of negotiations with the employers. For the first time in the history of IG Metall, two districts worked together as a collective bargaining tandem to achieve a pilot result for the 3.9 million employees in the metal and electrical industry. Christiane Benner, First Chairwoman of IG Metall: “We managed to achieve a solid result for the employees despite difficult conditions. We are particularly pleased with the great result for the trainees.”
Employee wages are increasing: After a one-off payment of 600 euros on February 1, 2025, permanent wage increases of 2.0 percent from April 1, 2025 and 3.1 percent plus from April 1, 2026 were achieved. “In this way we create security for the employees,” said Benner. In addition, IG Metall implemented a social component by increasing the annual “tariff additional money” (T-ZUG B) from currently around 630 euros to 900 euros from February 2026. Employees in lower pay groups benefit more from this.
IG Metall permanently increased remuneration by 140 euros for the 230,000 trainees in the industry. In addition, the social partners agreed in a joint declaration to promote democracy among young people.
Nadine Boguslawski, collective bargaining officer at IG Metall: “The collective bargaining agreement secures wages, helps the domestic economy and keeps the industry attractive for current and future skilled workers.” Deviations and differentiations in the event of economic difficulties are only possible if the net return on sales of companies is below 2 .3 percent drops. “The collective bargaining agreement is perfect. Collective bargaining secures the future of companies and employees,” said Boguslawski.
Union boss Benner emphasized the effectiveness of the collective bargaining partnership: “Social partnership is the most important stability factor for companies and employees in uncertain times. We will find common solutions.” Politicians called on Benner to demonstrate his ability to act and not to waste any time: “Tariff policy can do a lot, we have shown that. Politics must solve the structural problems we are currently facing. We need lower energy prices now, especially for energy-intensive companies. We now need measures to ramp up electromobility, investments in the infrastructure and thus in our future.”
In a joint statement, IG Metall and the employers’ association Gesamtmetall are calling on politicians to set the right course as quickly as possible. The structural problems increased the challenge of securing locations and jobs as well as developing new employment prospects in the company, the industry and in the region.
With a now further expanded collective exemption period, more burdened employees have the opportunity to convert money into time. In the future, part-time employees will also be able to request additional days off if they are burdened with shift work, raising children or caring for children. They will also be able to take advantage of the leave more often in the future: child care and nursing care up to five times. Boguslawski: “More and better time off means more equality, better compatibility and healthier industrial work.”
The collective agreement was preceded by a larger wave of warning strikes than in previous collective bargaining rounds. Since October 29th, IG Metall has mobilized a total of over 620,000 warning strikers at times in front of the factory gates. Boguslawski: “The employees’ determined commitment to IG Metall made the collective agreement possible in the first place.”
The collective agreement negotiated by the IG Metall Bavaria and Coast districts runs until October 31, 2026. The board of IG Metall recommends that the pilot results be adopted in all collective bargaining areas by the democratic committees in the IG Metall districts.
The joint statements from the social partners can be downloaded here:
Joint Declaration on Industrial Policy