Thursday, August 26, 2021
Hot wage round is imminent
Employees in the federal states are demanding five percent more
Verdi and Beamtenbund go into the upcoming collective bargaining round with clear ideas. For hundreds of thousands of employees in the public sector, there should be five percent more money. The unions warn employers about possible “smoke candles”. They in turn see billions in costs.
For the more than 800,000 employees in the federal states without Hesse, the service union Verdi and the civil service union are demanding five percent more wages in the upcoming collective bargaining round. Verdi Federal Chief Frank Werneke justified the demand for a joint meeting of the Verdi and Beamtenbund collective bargaining committees in Berlin on the one hand with the rising inflation rate. In addition, the public service must remain competitive on the labor market with better wages.
Verdi and Beamtenbund demand at least 150 euros per month for employees in the federal states, and at least 300 euros more per month for employees in the health services of the federal states. The federal chairman of the Beamtenbund, Ulrich Silberbach, warned employers to “light smoke candles” in the collective bargaining round and called for a quick employer offer. The public service must become more attractive for the next generation.
The income round with the collective bargaining association of German states (TdL) begins on October 8th in Berlin and continues on November 1st and 2nd and on November 26th and 27th in Potsdam. The collective agreement of March 2, 2019 expires after 33 months on September 30. With retroactive effect from January 1, 2019, it provided 3.2 percent, as of January 1, 2020 a further 3.2 percent and as of January 1, 2021 a further 1.4 percent more salary. There is no arbitration agreement between TdL and trade unions. If the collective bargaining round comes to a head, enforcement strikes could follow.
Employers expect a further burden on the state coffers in the billions if a collective agreement is reached. According to the TdL calculation, every percentage point more salary costs the state budgets 461 million for salaried employees alone, and a further 982 million for civil servants, for a total of 1.4 billion euros. According to TdL, a collective bargaining agreement would indirectly affect the 845,000 employees as well as 876,000 retirees and around 1.2 million civil servants in the 15 federal states.
There are different statements from the trade unions and TdL about the number of employees in the states without Hesse. Verdi and the Beamtenbund have 1.1 million employees with 940,000 full-time positions, 48,000 trainees, 1.2 million civil servants and 880,000 pensioners or pension recipients in the federal states excluding Hesse. In addition, according to Verdi, the collective agreement affects 175,000 civil servants and 120,000 retirees in the municipalities.
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