Adidas to stop using collective bargaining in Germany, angering union

Adidas, the second largest sportswear manufacturer in the world, will no longer participate in collective negotiation agreements in its original database in Germany, a spokesperson for DPA confirmed on Thursday.

“We can confirm that we have moved to membership of the Association of Employers without collective negotiations”, the spokesperson.

Adidas justified the movement by pointing out a lack of flexibility in the context of collective negotiations.

“Our employees are the best in the industry. To ensure that this remains the case, we must be able to offer wages outside a collective structure and offer attractive development opportunities to all employees – inside and outside the collective agreements,” said the company.

Adidas also argued that requests for more remuneration notes, which would considerably extend the collective negotiation coverage to other groups of employees, would reduce this flexibility.

In addition, the main IG BCE union of the company had asked for bonuses for the members of the union, which, according to Adidas, were not negotiable in the interest of all employees.

However, the company assured that any increase in wages negotiated in the collective negotiation tour would always apply to the 4,600 employees covered by collective agreements in Adidas in Germany.

The union criticizes Adidas’s decision

The IG BCE union strongly criticized the decision, the appellant “roughly relaxed”.

“With this withdrawal from the community of collective negotiations, Adidas abandons the path to social partnership and fair play,” said Vice-President of IG BCE, Birgit Biermann.

“Employees will now be entirely at the mercy of the management of management with regard to the development of their salary and their working conditions. We will not accept this,” she said.