On Monday, March 31, the new contract for over two million German public sector workers employed by federal and local government was announced. Its main purpose is to prevent the pay struggle in the public and private sectors from developing into a broader movement against the government, which could challenge the policy of redistributing wealth from those at the bottom of society to those at the top.
Set against the loss in real wages that public sector workers have had to accept in recent years, the new contract is little more than a drop in the ocean. The trade union Verdi has promoted it as a great success, but that is a sham.
The contract includes a rise in basic rates of around €50 plus a 3.1 percent increase this year. According to Verdi, this equates to a 5.1 percent average rise. Verdi has dropped the original demand for an increase of €200 in basic rates, which would have improved wages considerably for low-income earners. In the coming year, there will be a one-off payment of €225 and a further 2.8 percent rise. To a large extent, however, this will be balanced out by extending working hours in the West German municipalities from 38.5 to 39 hours a week.
In the course of two years, average incomes will thus rise by just over 5 percent. At best, this would barely keep pace with a rapidly rising inflation rate, but it in no way compensates for the pay freeze of the last three-and-a-half years, let alone the cutbacks of the past one-and-a-half decades, which have eradicated a third of the jobs in the public sector.
The public sector employers have been clear for a long time that they would not make any concessions to their workforce this year as far as wages were concerned. In view of rising growth rates, growing potential tax sources, high company profits and the exorbitant salaries of top managers, the pent-up anger of public sector workers—who have had to accept a pay freeze or pay cuts for many years—was simply too great. Verdi, the union that had negotiated this pay freeze, has been losing members hand over fist.

wsws.org

After years of losses when it was the Postal Authority, the Israel Postal Company reported net profits for 2007 of NIS 40 million on Tuesday.
Avi Hochman, the director-general of the for-profit government company, praised management and staffers for their achievements, saying, “This is an impressive success, according to any criterion, in view of the crisis of the past.”
In 2007, the company had gross income of NIS 1.8 billion. In the past, as a state authority, it lost hundreds of millions of shekels annually, forcing the government to make up the difference. In 2006, the then-authority lost NIS 19m.
The business orientation of the new company, which was launched last year out of the authority, was responsible for the profits, Hochman said. It now offers many new services and provides existing services on a higher level, he said.
As postal rates were last raised in November 1, the next annual report should show even higher profits, Hochman said. This was the case, he said, even though the company is bound to provide universal mailing services, including delivery to peripheral areas where there is little or no profit.
The company’s Postal Bank - with its 700 offices in postal branches around the country - would become a “growth engine” in the future, Hochman said. It brought in NIS 307m., or 18 percent, of company income last year, he said, adding that it must receive a commercial license soon to compete with the commercial banks.
Last year, the Israel Postal Company invested large amounts of money in computerization and advanced technological developments to improve its services, Hochman said.

jpost.com