After failed negotiations
Warning strikes in the public sector of the federal states announced
November 3rd, 2023, 4:00 p.m
Public sector employees are demanding more pay. But the second round of negotiations with their employers did not produce any results either. Now unions are calling on employees to stop working.
In the collective bargaining dispute in the public sector, employees in the federal states will be called upon to go on warning strikes and protest actions in the coming days and weeks. The Verdi union announced this after the second round of negotiations, which, according to them, were unsuccessful.
The unions want to enforce wage increases of 10.5 percent for around 1.2 million employees in the federal states over a term of the collective agreement of twelve months. The service union Verdi and the German Civil Service Association (dbb) announced in Berlin that there must be at least an increase in salaries of 500 euros per month.
The demand is on the same level as the ideas with which the unions entered into collective bargaining for the federal and local governments. A collective agreement was reached there in April, which, according to Verdi calculations, provides for a gradual increase of 11 to a good 16 percent for most employees over a period of two years – depending on the level of pay. Specifically, the deal included one-off payments totaling 3,000 euros, a base amount of 200 euros per month and an increase of 5.5 percent.
This means that the earnings of federal and local government employees on the one hand and those of the states on the other are in danger of drifting even further apart. But there needs to be a balance in income in the public service, otherwise the local authorities would poach each other’s staff, said Civil Service Association boss Ulrich Silberbach to the “Frankfurter Rundschau”.