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Will employees of hospitals, nurseries and local government be back on the streets soon? Employers and unions have halted their collective bargaining for now, but a decision appears to be looming.
So far, employers and unions have not made much progress in their collective bargaining for the public sector. After hours of deliberation, the group of eight initially broke up overnight in Potsdam, as announced by both parties. The talks will continue on Saturday morning. As said from the negotiating circles, both sides slowly approached each other.
Negotiations are underway over the earnings of more than two million federal and local government employees. The negotiators meet in the upper group: for municipalities, this is Mayor Ulrich Mädge of Lüneburg and for the federal government, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. For the ver.di union it is President Frank Werneke and for the dbb Beamtenbund and the tariff union President Ulrich Silberbach.
As stated, members of the Local Employers Association Association (VKA) and the ver.di union federal tariff commission wanted to discuss the booth in the evening. Expert discussions on individual areas were also planned.
Duration for “very important” municipalities
If there were a breakthrough, new strikes in clinics, town halls or nurseries would be off the table. One of the sticking points that was put on the negotiating table was the linear increase in income. Employers offer an income increase in three steps: on March 1, 2021 by one percent, on March 1, 2022 by another one percent, and on March 1, 2023 by another 1.5 percent. The term should be three years. Unions are demanding much more – plus 4.8 percent for just one year.
In union circles, it was ruled out that workers’ representatives accept a three-year term without significantly higher wage increases. The three years are “very important” for municipalities, but stressed Mädge.
Particularly sensitive: the subject of classification
Topics on the table also included the one-time payment required by unions and the situation of Sparkasse nurses and employees. Particularly significant improvements for individual professional groups, for example, for certain nurses, have been reported for a long time. So the overall increase could be less, he said.
According to information from the negotiating circles, a requirement from the municipal business circle to classify employees turned out to be a particularly sensitive issue. In keeping with this idea, it is useful to introduce that employees are paid differently if they also carry out activities during their working day that are below their actually better paid task. As an example, doctors were named who could be paid less at the end of the month if they had to perform organizational tasks over and over again.
