FRANKFURT/BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - A wage settlement has been reached for the approximately 930,000 employees in the German construction industry. In the third week of warning strikes, IG BAU and the employers have agreed on a joint proposal with a three-year term, as they jointly announced on Wednesday. The proposal is to be discussed in the committees by June 14. Until then, industrial action will be suspended.

At the end of the three-year period, salaries in the East are to be fully aligned with those in the West. In the first stage, all monthly salaries will increase by a lump sum of 230 euros and by 1.2 percent in the west and 2.2 percent in the east. The second stage provides for an increase of 4.2 percent in the West and 5.0 percent in the East as of April 1 next year. One year later, wages in the west will rise by 3.9 percent and those in the east will rise completely to the western level.

The head of IG Bauen Agrar Umwelt, Robert Feiger, saw the agreement as a success of the warning strikes. "This result is higher in volume than the arbitrator's award, which is what we have always demanded. It was the construction workers who fought for this result." He will recommend that the union committees accept it.

The employers had rejected the arbitrator's decision. Chief negotiator Uwe Nostitz was pleased that the wage dispute could now end peacefully. "The sooner our companies and their employees can concentrate on construction together again, the better for the entire industry." The Vice President of the Federation of the German Construction Industry, Jutta Beeke, emphasized the duration of three years. This creates planning security in a tight order situation.

At the beginning of May, the contractually agreed wage arbitration broke down. After three unsuccessful rounds of negotiations, the arbitrator Rainer Schlegel had proposed two-stage wage increases on April 19. Initially, wages were to rise by a flat rate of 250 euros in May, followed eleven months later by a further 4.15 percent in the west and 4.95 percent in the east. While IG BAU accepted the compromise proposal, the employers' associations rejected it at the beginning of May. IG BAU then called for warning strikes and went on strike again for its original demand of 500 euros more per month./ceb/DP/stw