Conditions that foster growth and employment need to be in place before the strategic goal of improving Germany's labor market can be achieved. This is why the Bertelsmann Stiftung Innovative Tarifpolitik (Innovative Collective Bargaining Policy) project wants to develop creative strategies to overhaul collective bargaining policies and create a forum for unions and management that encourages constructive dialogue.

Such strategies should retain the undisputed advantages of association-level agreements, but make the necessary changes to the following areas:

- greater flexibility for industry- and company-specific agreements by including more opening clauses

- increased consideration for job security measures in corporate agreements and a more flexible structure, such as a modular format for collective bargaining components

- replacing the current highly ritualized negotiation processes with new, more flexible models of negotiation

Project duration: April 1, 2003, to December 31, 2006