NGG Nationwide Action today || Fast-Food Workers Deserve Decent Pay!

NGG Nationwide Action today || Fast-Food Workers Deserve Decent Pay!

Jan 9, 2025| Featured, In the spotlight, Press release

EFFAT fully supports its German affiliate NGG in its major nationwide day of action in Hamburg today in support of fast-food workers fighting for decent pay and better working conditions. The NGG is currently renegotiating a national collective agreement in the fast-food sector, which employs over 126,000 workers in Germany.

The NGG's main demand is a pay rise from €12.61 to €15 an hour, which would enable fast-food workers to cope with the rising cost of living. The employers' association, which represents employers such as McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King and others, has offered the NGG a pay rise of just €1.26 an hour over the next four years.

The attitude of fast-food employers is shocking given the extremely low wages, precarious working conditions and heavy workloads in the sector, as well as the record profits made by the fast-food giants last year (McDonald's profit of $11.6 billion and Burger King profit of $462 million in 2023).

As a result, fast-food workers have been forced to take to the streets in demonstrations across Germany in recent months, and numerous strikes have been organised with the support of the NGG.

EFFAT stands in solidarity with the fast-food workers in their fight for a fair collective agreement that guarantees them a decent wage.

Commenting on today's strike, EFFAT General Secretary Enrico Somaglia said: We remain in full solidarity with the fast-food workers and the NGG who are mobilising in Hamburg today. The fast-food industry around the world has developed on a low-cost model where franchise giants like McDonald's, Starbucks and Burger King cut costs and escape employer responsibility while making record profits on the backs of fast-food workers. This model must change. It is time to give these workers a fair slice of the cake while making fast food companies truly accountable!

EFFAT believes that both the European Adequate Minimum Wage Directive and the EU Due Diligence Directive are important tools for raising labour standards in the fast-food industry, helping to strengthen collective bargaining in the sector and ensuring that the franchise giants are accountable for working conditions throughout their franchise networks and supply chains.

We stand with fast food workers today in their fight for decent pay and fair collective agreements, and we will continue to mobilise for a fairer fast-food model across Europe, with strong collective bargaining rights and clear accountability in franchise networks.