Christiane Benner, the Chairwoman of the Metal Industry Union of Trades and Crafts, criticized the federal government, accusing it of political failure regarding the implementation of the EU’s pay transparency directive. Benner told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Thursday editions) that the government has failed to implement an EU directive within the three-year deadline, a directive designed to ensure that women are paid better.
According to Benner, establishing equal pay is fundamental for women to achieve both economic independence and greater employment. She emphasized that pay equality is a basic right, not just an optional extra, and insisted that the federal government must now ensure legal certainty and implement the directive ambitiously.
The official deadline for incorporating the directive into German law is June 7th, but the relevant Ministry of Education has already announced that this deadline will not be met.
However, Dennis Radtke, Chairman of the CDU employee wing, views the delay as acceptable. Radtke told the Funke newspapers that his principle is “quality instead of speed”. He stressed that when adapting the rules to national law, the process should be kept as free of bureaucracy as possible.
Radtke advocates for a presumption of appropriateness regarding collective bargaining agreements. He argued that collective agreements should be differentiated based on specific tasks, not gender, and if a collective agreement is in force, no pay discrimination should be possible, in his opinion.
Benner also expressed willingness to accept some concessions for businesses that operate under collective agreements, suggesting that such exceptions could help strengthen collective bargaining.
