A two-year collective agreement has been reached between the German utility company RWE and the trade union IG BCE, which reflects the low level of electricity demand in Germany’s sluggish economy. This gives 11,000 employees a basic wage increase of 1% on Jan. 1, 2017, and again on Jan. 1, 2018. This largely mirrors a similar deal reached recently between the company and the trade union Verdi. However, Verdi members also received a one-off bonus of 1,000 euros. But staff at RWE Generation SE and RWE Power AG represented by IG BCE will instead qualify for a new early retirement scheme.