On Saturday afternoon, the Deutsche Bahn mega strike due to take place from the evening of March 14 to early March 16, was called off. However, with 49 other railway and bus companies going ahead with the strike plan, major disruptions to transport are still expected across Germany.

Deutsche Bahn strike called off

The 50-hour warning strike that was announced last week by Deutsche Bahn employees and the EVG union, ahead of pay negotiations at the end of May, was cancelled on Saturday.

Agreeing on a settlement before the labour court in Frankfurt on Saturday, the EVG union said that it had suspended the strike that was due to begin late on Sunday evening and last until the early hours of Tuesday.

The strike was called off after Deutsche Bahn filed an emergency application to the Frankfurt labour court in order to stop the strike from going ahead and said it would fulfil the minimum wage requests made by the EVG. “With the advice of the court, we have reached a settlement with the employer,” an EVG spokesperson explained.

After announcing the strike last week, the EVG said that one of the main outcomes it wanted to achieve was to clarify certain questions about employees working for minimum wage at DB, reporting that around 2.000 employees have only received minimum wages via supplementary payments since the minimum wage in Germany has increased faster than the company’s pay scales.

Now that the settlement has been signed, Deutsche Bahn bosses have said that both sides have now agreed to “negotiate swiftly and constructively with the aim of reaching an agreement soon”. The union’s demand for a 12 percent pay rise of at least 650 euros per month for around 180.000 DB employees, still needs to be discussed.

49 German transport services still affected by the strike

Over the weekend, Deutsche Bahn scrambled to organise staff shifts in time for Monday traffic. Between 80 and 90 percent of services are now expected to run as normal.

However, since the EVG represents 49 other rail companies in Germany, severe disruption is still expected to public transport on Monday. This includes Regional Bus Stuttgart GmbH, Regionalbus Ostbayern, Erfurter Bahn GmbH, HLB Hessenbus, Regionalverkehr Münsterland GmbH and Westfalen Bahn GmbH.

A full list of operators affected by the strike can be found on the EVG Express Magazin website.

Thumb image credit: Jiaye Liu / Shutterstock.com