Engineering and project services specialist recruiters Excellence AG has agreed a collective agreement with union ver.di. The new agreement will be implemented retroactively from 1 January 2014.

According to Excellence, the new ‘pioneering’ agreement surpasses the minimum requirements of the industry with regard to collective bargaining agreements. The holiday entitlement of ver.di members has been increased from 24 to 30 days, and sickness benefit has been extended, depending on the length of service, from six weeks to up to 26 weeks. Regulations regarding the number of hours worked, medical coverage, and health benefits were also outlined in the agreement. 

Vera Casalan, CEO of Excellence AG, commented: “There are no cross-industry tariff rules for the highly complex engineering service sector. Results-oriented, active project engineers need a framework that reflects the value of their work. So we said, if there aren’t any, we will create them.”

The collective agreement was signed within three months, following productive and very positive dialogue between ver.di and Excellence.

Lothar Schrӧder, Chairman of ver.di, commented: “I understand that project engineers demand fair working conditions. With this contract, they will have it.”

Ms Casalan expressed her satisfaction with the agreement: “We feel responsible for our employees and that is what we have now demonstrated. This is good news for our customers, who will be able to see [the benefits of the agreement] in the highly motivated and committed project engineers.”