This has now been decided by the board of management, in common accord with the company’s combined works council. “With the economy having recovered faster than expected, we will now bring the collective agreement’s flexible components to bear – this time to our associates’ advantage,” said Wolfgang Malchow, member of the board of management and director of industrial relations. Alfred Löckle, the chairman of the combined works council, said: “During the crisis, we deferred the collectively agreed pay raise. Now that the situation has improved, it goes without saying that we can bring the raise forward.” In its most recent outlook for fiscal 2010, the company forecast a sales increase of 20 percent to a good 46 billion euros. It also expects result to be significantly positive once again.

In bringing this pay raise forward, Bosch is also rewarding associates’ willingness to accept lower bonuses during the economic and financial crisis. This helped to reduce the cost of shorter working hours. This allowed shorter working hours to be applied longer. As a result of these measures to adjust working hours, Bosch was able to keep its workforce in Germany stable, at more than 110,000 associates – and this despite a significant drop in business. The workforce gave this solution their full support, and demonstrated great solidarity in the crisis,” Löckle said. In the negotiations soon to be held with management, he also intends to advocate payments for 2010 under the work bonus scheme that reflect this. “During these difficult times, our associates displayed strong loyalty. This is not a matter of course. “We owe all of them a great debt of thanks,” Malchow said.

The roughly 85,000 Bosch associates working at the German Bosch locations bound by collective agreements will benefit from this decision. The raise dates back to a collective agreement for the metalworking industry, concluded in February 2010. The parties agreed a one-off payment for 2010 and a 2.7 percent raise effective April 2011. Depending on companies’ economic situation, the raise can be brought forward or postponed by two months. “In agreeing on flexible rules for the final decision at company level, the bargaining parties have strengthened companies’ international competitiveness, and made Germany a more attractive location for business,” Malchow said. Löckle added: “Creating a collective agreement that was crisis proof provided us with a sound basis for preserving jobs though difficult times, instead of causing mass unemployment. Other countries now envy us for this success.” During the crisis, Bosch introduced shorter working hours for as many as 65,000 associates in Germany. At the end of September, only some 4,300 were still affected by such schemes.