On 31 March 2011 a new collective agreement for the German Chemical Industry has been agreed between the IG BCE trade union and the employers associations. The new agreement covers all 1,900 member companies of BAVC's regional member associations with approximately 550,000 employees in Germany. In Baden-Wuerttemberg it is binding for 238 companies with about 70,000 employees organized in the Arbeitgeberverband Chemie Baden-Württemberg e.V. (agvChemie), the regional employers association.

In Baden-Württemberg the duration of the new agreement is from 1 April 2011, until 30 June 2012 (15 months). For the first month of the agreement (April 2011) employees will receive no pay increase. From May 2011 employees will receive a 4,1% pay increase. This increase relates to the minimum wages fixed in the regional collective agreements for the 13 job levels in the industry (the job levels are agreed and fixed in a national level agreement whereas the pay rates are fixed in regional agreements and differ with regard to the absolute levels of wages and salaries between regions). According to the German industrial relations system companies who do already pay higher effective wages or salaries than the minimum wages or salaries in the collective agreement do not have to (but very often do) increase wages and salaries following the new agreement as long as they continue to pay above the new minimum levels.

A special clause of the new agreement allows for agreements on company level between management and works council to either bring forward the pay increase one month or to postpone it for up to two further months, depending on the economic situation of the company. This flexibility was very important for the employers associations as it reflects the different economic situations of the member companies.
In addition the employers and the trade union have agreed to intensify their existing joint activities to integrate young persons with very low educational levels into the labour market. Finally, both social partners agreed to start joint talks on a number of issues related to the development of the German educational system as well as demographic challenges for human ressource management.

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