FRANKFURT/BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - After years of dispute, warning strikes and most recently four rounds of negotiations, employees of Commerzbank subsidiary ComTS have an in-house collective agreement for the first time. This is initially to apply until the end of 2025, as Commerzbank announced on Friday. According to the Verdi trade union, it has been agreed that the collective wage increases negotiated for the private banking industry will then apply to ComTS employees.

According to Verdi, the collective agreement now agreed upon for the approximately 1,700 employees provides for salaries to increase by 10 to 14 percent, depending on the salary group, as of July 1, 2023. The minimum wage will be 14 euros per hour. In April 2024, there will be a one-off payment of 600 euros gross per head. In addition, the legal option of paying up to 3,000 euros per employee tax-free as an inflation compensation bonus by the end of 2024 will be exploited. Vacation and Christmas bonuses are to be successively increased to 1000 euros gross by 2025.

"In constructive talks with Verdi, we have found a solution that is both economically viable and sustainable. On the other hand, we are creating attractive conditions and prospects for ComTS employees," said Commerzbank board member and chief negotiator Andreas Schimmele, summarizing the result. Verdi negotiator Stefan Wittmann summed up by saying that the agreement had succeeded in "ensuring that Commerzbank's working conditions will also apply to ComTS to a large extent in the future".

ComTS, which has sites in Erfurt, Duisburg, Halle, Hamm and Magdeburg, supports Commerzbank in the processing of payment transactions, among other things. The dispute had been simmering since 2020./ben/DP/mis