Tarifeinheit per Gesetz – 10 Thesen zu den Plänen der Bundesregierung zur Wiedereinführung der Tarifeinheit

One basically has to welcome the plans of the German Government to legally clarify the questions arising from a collision of collective labour agreements caused by a revised jurisdiction. Companies need clear guidelines on how to handle the demands of several trade unions. Reciprocally, the trade unions, too, need legal security shown, for example, by the high compensation claims against the Air Traffic Controllers’ Union (GDF) jeopardising its existence. The legislator should no longer allow the collective labour system in the field of essential services to suffer from a growing discontent of the affected citizens being the main sufferers from the strikes. However, the current suggestion of the German Government by far exceeds the extent allowed by the Constitution. Procedural regulations combined with strictly limited constraints of the right to strike on the sector of essential services would be preferable. The political problem consists in the fact that – owing to the current distribution of power – a legal regulation might only be possible on the basis of a most fragile compromise between the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) and the Confederation of German Employers (BDA). Thus, Germany only has the choice of preserving this law quickly submitted to a constitutional examination or of not having a unity of collective bargaining agreements at all. Considering this background, should one not simply try to ask the Federal Constitution Court to reliably outline the frame of a legal regulation consistent with the Constitution? Contrary to the perspective of a scientist, this question can certainly be answered with “yes” from a point of view of the federations and politicians.