Collective agreements

Germany (companies with about 98% of domestic employees).
¹⁾ The figures for employees on individual contracts primarily include executives, employees paid above the wage agreement level (known as non-tariff employees) and employees with individual contractual agreements.

In addition to country-specific legislation, the working conditions and pay for our employees primarily follow the collective bargaining agreements that have been concluded with the respectively responsible trade unions. In principle, the collective bargaining agreements apply to employees in Germany. The activities of civil servants in DB Group are based on statutory allocation under article 2, section 12 of the Rail Restructuring Act (ENeuOG). The same collective wage agreement provisions within DB Group therefore apply on this basis to civil servants, insofar as the legal regulations governing civil servants do not conflict with this.

The employment conditions of employees not subject to wage agreements and executives in DB Group are generally not determined by collective bargaining agreements. Never­­theless, the remuneration of the great majority of employees not subject to wage agreements is based on the highest pay under collective bargaining agreements. In addition, DB Group ensures that the employment conditions of employees, both subject to and not subject to wage agreements, as well as executives, are compatible with one another with respect to personnel policy.

The collective bargaining agreements, employer/works council agreements and other DB Group regulations on employment conditions are generally gender-neutral. Job evaluations and remuneration levels are based exclusively on the requirements of the respective activity, not on the personal characteristics of the candidates.

Germany (companies with about 98% of domestic employees).

The share of employees subject to collective bargaining agreements remains virtually unchanged at a very high level.

Includes DB Arriva.

DB Group offers various part-time models to improve the balance between career and family.

Includes DB Arriva.

The share of employees with permanent employment contracts remained very high at about 94% (in Germany: around 96%).

Germany (companies with approximately 92% of domestic employees). Since parental leave can last up to three years, it is possible for employees to be recorded for up to four financial years. This means that the number of employees who returned from parental leave may exceed the number of employees who took parental leave.
¹⁾ Employees who have returned after parental leave in relation to employees who have taken parental leave.
²⁾ Employees who were still employed 12 months after their return after parental leave, in relation to employees who returned to the workplace in earlier reporting periods after parental leave.

The distribution of parental leave by men and women also reflects the distribution of gender in Germany within DB Group. The return and retention rate of our employees is very high, which also reflects our attractiveness as an employer and our efforts to retain employees.

DB Group makes numerous offers related to parental leave to provide support and show our appreciation to parents. During their parental leave, employees can remain in personal contact with their team by retaining their mobile devices or via a parental leave buddy. When the child is born, the executive has the opportunity to send an appreciation package to the parents at home. In cooperation with the BSW&EWH Foundation Family (Stiftungsfamilie BSW&EWH), members are also sent a baby welcome package, and we run a parent network for exchange and networking purposes.

After parental leave, working parents will be offered free support finding day care in collaboration with the Workers’ Welfare Service (AWO). In addition, the Bahnbini children’s day care center in Frankfurt am Main offers qualified care for up to 90 children of employees from 12 months up to school age. The day-care center is operated by the BSW&EWH Foundation Family and the sponsor is Kita Concept Trägerschaften gGmbH (childcare agency).

In the event of a short-term and unforeseeable lack of childcare, DB Group provides a parent-child room at some locations – another way to reconcile work and family life.

Germany (companies with approximately 99% of domestic employees).
External temporary workers are not counted as DB Group employees.

In the case of particular bottlenecks, we work together with external temporary employment agencies to bridge short-term or temporary personnel shortfalls in addition to the use of temporary agency workers belonging to DB Zeitarbeit GmbH (DB Temporary Work). External temporary agency workers are not counted as DB Group employees as they are employed by the respective temporary employment agency. The number of external temporary agency workers remains at the previous year’s level.

Includes DB Arriva.

Includes DB Arriva.

The variable compensation of executives, employees under collective bargaining agreements and those not employed under collective bargaining agreements is geared towards the Strong Rail target. Variable remuneration is based on a set of key figures consisting of key financial and non-finan­­­cial indicators, such as customer satisfaction, punctuality, employee satisfaction, women in leadership, EBIT and – depending on the contract level – personal performance or the reduction of CO₂e emissions (for railway in Germany).

• To improve work-life balance, executives and employees not subject to collective wage agreements are able to take a sabbatical. We also support the provision of part-time executive employment, job sharing and interim management.
• The “Special semi-retirement for executives in DB Group” program is intended to reduce executives’ individual workload while maintaining the employability of older executives until the statutory retirement age.
• Employer-financed contributions to the company pension plan are used to ensure post-employment benefits for executives and employees not subject to collective wage agreements.
• The BahnCard 100 and the mobility budget (using the Bonovo app) offer executives and employees not under collective bargaining agreements an eco-friendly alternative to company cars.

Occupational health and safety management

Aspects of occupational health and safety at DB Group are not centrally set up, but are integrated together into the business activities and taken into account within the management systems of DB companies.

The binding standards in the framework directives on occupational health and safety are defined in the Group direc­­tive on risk minimization, which is contained in the management handbook. The medical and psychological suitability framework directive defines rules for determining medical and psychological suitability. The aim is to be able to deploy applicants and employees in accordance with the health requirements of their activities and thus ensure the safety of rail and bus operations as well as third parties. The occupational health and safety manual complies with government and autonomous occupational health and safety regulations and contains a summary of the framework directives, appendices and forms for health and safety in the workplace for all employees in the Integrated Rail System. Manual components cover, among other things, occupational health and safety in DB Group, utilization of external companies, deployment abroad, biomaterials, activities involving hazardous materials, work in the rail area, personal protective equipment, procedure in the case of work accidents and commuting accidents, as well as work on or near electrical systems.

Our occupational health and safety policy is designed to continuously decrease the number and severity of accidents. The framework directives on occupational health and safety flesh out the key company obligations that are specified in accordance with sections 1 –13 of the German Occupational Health and Safety Act (ArbSchG). For example, the “Occupational health and safety in DB Group” framework directive specifies that each DB company is required to design a management system including setting up an occupational health and safety committee (Arbeitsschutzausschuss; ASA). The quarterly occupational health and safety committee considers the interests of employees via the participating stakeholder group representatives, among other things, and communicates measures regarding health and safety in the workplace. In contrast, the “Risk assessment” framework directive states that a risk assessment must be carried out and documented, using the SAP Environment, Health and Safety Management (SAP EHS) IT application in order to ensure the health and safety of employees. The documented risk assessment must be checked regularly and as necessary (e.g. in case of changes to workflows). The previous measures are defined or updated in accordance with a predefined procedure for determining and assessing risks. Relevant findings from the risk assessment is disclosed to employees as part of instructions.

DB Group provides its employees with electronic learning modules for the training. General measures for health and safety in the workplace are provided, which can be explained further in a personal meeting with the executive. Furthermore, the Ordinance on Preventive Occupational Healthcare is implemented in a framework directive, which serves as a basis for the advisory activities of our occupational medical services. The tasks of our occupational medical services are based on legal requirements (e.g. Occupational Health and Safety Act) and internal framework directives. This ensures a focus on prevention (work-related illnesses and accidents), health promotion and reintegration. Regular training sessions, digital appointments and results reporting via SAP EHS, as well as the specific professional requirements for the medical staff of occupational medical services ensure a consistently high quality of service. The use of third-party companies and external temporary workers (including the instruction of external persons by the external firm, the provider or hirer of external temporary workers) is dealt with by the “Occupational health and safety when using external firms and temporary workers.” Regular testing of electrical systems and production equipment is ensured by the “Work on or near electrical systems and production equipment” framework directives.

Measures were also further developed to improve the quality of preventive occupational safety for the Integrated Rail System, with the aim of achieving zero accidents, in the working group on occupational health and safety meeting on a quarterly basis. This included, for example, the establishment of a DB learning portfolio on occupational health and safety with an electronic learning course for exercising and monitoring business obligations. In addition to the specialist occupational health and safety staff at DB companies, members of the Group Works Council also take part in the working group to participate in Group-wide measures on safety and health at work.

The joint zero-accident occupational health and safety strategy has, for the Integrated Rail System, the strategic objective of ensuring “no work accidents or work-related illnesses.” The top priority is to avoid fatal and severe occupational accidents and occupational illnesses. If a fatal or serious occupational accident nevertheless occurs, we cooperate closely with the competent authorities and develop measures to prevent similar causes of accidents in future. We are represented in the Zero Accident Forum of the Occupational Health and Safety Institute of the German Statutory Accident Insurance (Institut für Arbeitsschutz der Deutschen Gesetz­­li­­­­chen Unfallversicherung; IFA). The forum is a network of com­panies learning from one other so that they can reduce the number of accidents at work, including commuting accidents, to zero.

Germany (companies with about 98% of domestic employees).

The sickness rate fell in 2023 and is now at pre-Covid-19 levels. In the previous year, a wave of colds and flu, the highly infectious Omicron variant and the temporary special burdens on our employees due to the 9-Euro-Ticket resulted in higher absenteeism.

¹⁾ Worldwide (companies with about 98% of employees).
²⁾ Germany (companies with about 97% of domestic employees).
³⁾ Lost time injury frequency = LTIF (work accidents that cause the employee to be absent for longer than one calendar day) 1,000,000/working hours.

Compliance with internal standards and national laws serve to protect employees. Safe work and healthy employees make an important contribution here. Digital events and active communication measures on the topic of occupational health and safety were implemented to achieve the goal of raising awareness about safety and personal responsibility. We are continuously working to optimize safety. With lost time injury frequency (LTIF), we have established an indicator to aid us in further reducing the frequency of accidents. The data on LTIF (lost time injury frequency) is largely provided via the IT platform SAP EHS, which connects the occupational medical service, occupational health and safety, accident management and hazardous materials management. In accordance with statutory provisions in Germany, occupational accidents are reported and provided to the statutory accident insurance company within three calendar days of the accident becoming known. The relevant statutory accident insurance provider is responsible for determining the damage and regulating the costs of the accident. Statistically, only fatal work accidents and not serious ones are reported or recorded. Near misses can be reported anonymously via the online ­accident portal.

The fatal occupational accidents occurred at DB Cargo, DB Security and DB Netze Track in 2023 (previous year: DB Rail Construction Group, DB Cargo, DB Track Services, DB Regional Bus and DB Services). Fatal occupational accidents at DB Group are systematically investigated in the affected business units, and any possible process-related improvements and further measures are identified and implemented.

About 65 DB companies in Germany are included in the LTIF calculation. A closer look at the LTIF reveals a differentiated picture, also in an international comparison, as all areas of activity within the DB Group are included in the calculation. Our goal within the scope of our occupational health and safety policy is to continuously and sustainably reduce the LTIF. Our zero-accident measures contribute to this. We involve the DB companies in the Occupational Health and Safety Working Group, thereby promoting an overall culture of safety to ensure the safety of our employees. The LTIF in Germany is at the same level as in the previous year.

In 2023, we pushed ahead with our strategy to improve the quality of preventive occupational health and safety, in particular with the digital and technological transformation of DB Group.

We are also working continuously to place greater emphasis on executives’ responsibility and their function as role models. We are therefore continuing to develop further learning opportunities for executives as part of the occupational health and safety strategy for the Integrated Rail System.

Measures against discrimination

We are committed to a working environment that is free from discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment. Every incident is dealt with specifically and individually in order to ensure the correct course of action and to support those affected in a trusting manner. Capable assistance for clarifying and handling conflict situations is available from the intra-­Group ombudsman’s office for all employees, in addition to the rules in the Group employer/works council agreements (Konzernbetriebsvereinbarung; KBV), such as the KBV for equal treatment and protection against discrimination, the KBV for inclusion or the framework KBV for balancing work, family and life stage, as well as directives such as those on the Federal General Act on Equal Treatment (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz) and on company integration management, or compliance directives. The focus in all this is on non-bureaucratic and independent extrajudicial settlement of conflicts. The ombudsman’s office coordinates the intra-­­­Group pool of mediators. In addition, the topics of avoiding unconscious bias and dealing with discrimination are anchored in the training offered by the DB Executive Academy.

We do not tolerate sexual harassment or discrimination against anybody, in particular due to national, ethnic or social origin, skin color, health status, disability, sexual orientation, gender, age, political opinion, religion or belief, or membership of a trade union. This prohibition on discrimination also applies to remuneration.

We have set up various contact points for our employees and customers to combat discrimination, with the option of submitting anonymous reports or seeking assistance directly. One option is to use our complaints procedureµ 199. Reports can be submitted, for example, via our electronic whistle-­blower system, which, in 2023, informed us of four confirmed cases of discrimination.

Inclusion and reintegration measures

Operational integration management for prevention, based on a legal framework, is supplemented by two additional procedures contained in a framework directive. Company integration management and the procedures in the case of temporary non-suitability govern the continued employment of employees with permanent or limited impairments to their ability to work. As part of the digitalization initiative in the HR unit, the method for operational integration management for prevention has been supported digitally since December 2023. This simplifies process steps and facilitates a standardized implementation. Our principles for the successful inclusion of employees with disabilities are anchored in the KBV on inclusion. We also record our measures to promote inclusion in the Rail Action Plan and thus implement the objectives of the National Action Plan and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Together with the Group representative for severely disabled employees, we are rewarding and recognizing special inclusion measures with the DB Inclusion Award “Flagship,” thereby promoting the visibility of successful inclusion within DB Group. An internal qualification for inclusion officers creates a uniform understanding and standardized communication of knowledge about this role and the tasks of the inclusion officers in DB Group. The steadily achieved progress in the area of inclusion is characterized by strong cooperation between employer, representatives of severely disabled employees and external partners. Internally, the coordination office for subsidies, pensions and compensation fees (KS FöRA) supports employees when applying for subsidies.