German power group E.ON unions suspend pay strike

The two main unions at Germany's biggest power supplier E.ON announced on Saturday they would suspend strike action planned for next week and instead return to the negotiating table. Employees and management at E.ON have been engaged in a bitter dispute over pay. Powerful services sector union Verdi and the industrial union IG BCE said in separate statements that walkouts were suspended "until midnight on February 10." On Friday union members had overwhelmingly voted in favour of walkouts from Monday, prompting E.ON mangement to offer more talks. Verdi said Saturday that representatives from both sides had drawn up terms that would be presented next week, without giving further details. Unions want a raise of 6.5 percent for around 30,000 E.ON employees in Germany. The power group has so far offered an increase of 1.7 percent.