A collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a contract negotiated between a labour union and one or more employers, setting binding standards for pay, working hours, holidays, notice periods and special payments such as bonuses. In Germany and much of continental Europe, CBAs cover entire industries or regions and are one of the most important instruments for safeguarding fair working conditions.
There are two main types: industry-wide agreements (Flächentarifverträge), which apply to all employers in a sector or region that are members of the relevant employer association, and company-specific agreements (Haustarifverträge), negotiated directly between a single employer and the union. In Germany, well-known examples include TVöD for federal and municipal public-sector employees and TV-L for state-level public employees.
Formally, a CBA only binds union members working for unionised employers. In practice, however, most German employers extend the same conditions to non-union staff to avoid two-tier workforces. As a result, working under a CBA typically means transparent pay scales, predictable career progression and stronger dismissal protection.
For candidates, the question of whether a position is covered by a CBA is an important signal of job quality. The presence of a CBA tends to correlate with longer tenures, lower wage gaps and clearer rules around overtime and pay rises. The non-profit, education and public-sector roles that Lunigi focuses on are predominantly covered by collective agreements – an aspect we surface in curated email digests.