10.5 percent more demanded: Employers slow down collective bargaining demands from Verdi and DBB

10.5 percent more required
Employers curb collective bargaining demands from Verdi and DBB

Employers’ representatives reject the unions’ demands for the start of collective bargaining. Verdi and the German Association of Civil Servants want 10.5 percent more wages in the public sector. Interior Minister Faeser and the taxpayers’ association warn against too high a degree.

At the beginning of the collective bargaining for the approximately 2.4 million federal and local employees, there was no sign of a solution to the collective bargaining conflict. At the beginning of the collective bargaining round in Potsdam, the Verdi services union and the German Civil Service Association (DBB) called for a wage increase of 10.5 percent for a period of twelve months due to the high inflation, but at least 500 euros more a month. Representatives of the federal government and local authorities rejected the request with reference to the budgetary situation.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser said that employees expect appropriate responses to the energy crisis and inflation. However, a collective bargaining agreement must also take into account the federal government’s relief packages. In addition, public employers should only be charged to the extent that they can still fill vacancies.

Karin Welge, President of the Association of Municipal Employers’ Associations (VKA) and Mayor of Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia, made it clear that she was aiming for a collective bargaining agreement without arbitration in the third round of negotiations at the end of March. The federal government and municipalities did not initially submit an employer offer.

In front of the conference hotel, members of Verdi and DBB demonstrated for higher wages at the start of the negotiations. “We are going into these collective bargaining with confidence, there is broad support among public sector employees for our demands,” said Verdi federal boss Frank Werneke before the start of the negotiations.

“Social imbalance due to inflation”

There is a massive burden on employees because of vacancies, “because the public sector pays too badly,” added Werneke. Since the previous collective bargaining agreement in 2020, prices have risen by eleven percent, but wages have fallen significantly less. Inflation has a hard social imbalance. “That has to be made up for, the prices continue to rise,” said Werneke, “that we in the public sector are capable of action and strikes across the board should be known.” Employers must quickly “submit a concrete and negotiable offer,” demanded DBB chairman Ulrich Silberbach. “Price hike is real, work intensification is real, staff shortage is real,” he said.

The President of the Taxpayers’ Association, Reiner Holznagel, warned the collective bargaining partners in the “Rheinische Post” against too high a deal. The federal government is deep in debt, and the municipalities are also suffering from oppressive spending. Excessive collective agreements with subsequent transfer to the ever-growing civil service inevitably lead either to higher debts or increasing tax burdens for citizens and companies, Holznagel told the newspaper.

The peace obligation of the unions expires on Wednesday. Warning strikes would then be possible immediately. The collective bargaining round for the federal and local public services is to be continued on February 22nd and 23rd and from March 27th to 29th.

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