After months of wrangling, trade unions and employers in Potsdam agreed on higher tariffs. Indefinite strikes are off the table – at least at the federal and local level.
A sigh of relief for employees and consumers: After months of wrestling in the wage dispute for the public sector, the negotiating partners agreed on the highest deal in decades late on Saturday evening. For the 2.5 million federal and local employees, this means relief in view of the high inflation. Nationwide strikes have thus been averted. Nevertheless, consumers have to prepare for warning strikes in other areas in the near future.
Are strikes at airports and on the rails off the table?
No. The only thing that has been averted with the collective bargaining agreement for the federal and local governments is open-ended strikes in the public sector – for example in garbage disposal, hospitals or city administrations. However, collective bargaining is still ongoing in other transport-related sectors. As early as this Monday, Verdi wants to paralyze the capital’s BER airport with warning strikes. The background to this is negotiations on surcharges for night, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday work as well as regulations on paying overtime for security and service staff. Talks have been going on between Verdi and the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS) for some time.
In the railway sector, collective bargaining at Deutsche Bahn will continue on Tuesday in Fulda. There, the railway and transport union (EVG) is negotiating with the group about more money for around 180,000 railway employees. Warning strikes are also possible here at any time, which could again paralyze regional and long-distance traffic throughout the country.
What was decided at the agreement?
Among other things, the agreement provides for tax and duty-free special payments totaling 3,000 euros in several stages. EUR 1,240 of this should already flow in June, followed by a further EUR 220 in each of the months from July to February 2024. From March 2024 there should then be a basic amount of EUR 200 gross as a wage increase and then 5.5 percent more. If no increase of 340 euros gross is achieved, the relevant increase amount should be set to this sum. With this solution, the parties to the collective bargaining largely based themselves on the compromise proposal from the arbitration proceedings that ended a week ago. The term of the agreement is to be 24 months.
Who is affected?
The increase in income applies to members of thousands of different professions – including women and men who work as educators, bus drivers, employees of public baths, firefighters, nurses and geriatric nurses, administrative employees, sewage treatment workers, foresters or doctors. It is about the income of more than 2.4 million employees of the municipal employers and 134,000 of the federal government. However, a separate collective agreement applies to the employees of the federal states, such as police officers or teachers.
What does the agreement mean in concrete terms for employees?
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) calculated that with this degree, a cleaning worker in the public sector would receive 360 euros or 13.3 percent more money in the future. Verdi boss Frank Werneke said: “As part of this collective bargaining agreement, a nurse gets a permanent monthly pay increase of 400 euros. Or a garbage worker of 357 euros.” This corresponds to an increase of 13.4 percent. The trade unions mainly criticized the term of 24 months. The federal chairman of the civil servants’ association dbb, Ulrich Silberbach, said it was not possible to get more done in the municipalities.
Is the agreement coming for sure?
The Verdi trade union is now starting a member survey on the collective bargaining result. Theoretically, this could be negative, in which case renegotiation would have to take place. However, this is considered unlikely. “As a collective bargaining committee, we are promoting our members to accept the result,” said Werneke.
How expensive will it be for employers?
The agreement for the cash-strapped municipalities and cities will be a particular financial challenge. The President of the Association of Municipal Employers’ Associations, Karin Welge, spoke of the “most expensive wage agreement of all time”, which will cost the cities and municipalities around 17 billion euros. “The municipal employers went to the financial limit with this compromise,” said Welge after the agreement.
For the federal government, the total costs of the agreement for the agreed term amounted to around 4.95 billion euros. “We have accommodated the unions as much as we could still be responsible for in the difficult budgetary situation,” said Interior Minister Faeser.
Verdi on the round of collective bargaining The civil servants’ association dbb on the round of collective bargaining Press folder BMI VKA on the round of collective bargaining EVG on the round of collective bargaining
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
