BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Thousands of doctors at university hospitals have held work stoppages and rallies in numerous federal states to demand more income and better working conditions. Around 7,000 doctors from 23 university hospitals took part in the warning strike rallies on Monday, said the Marburger Bund doctors’ union in Berlin.
Most recently, a fourth round of negotiations between the doctors’ union and the state employers failed. The negotiator of the Collective Bargaining Association of German States (TdL), Monika Heinold (Greens), was nevertheless optimistic about further negotiations. The doctors are demanding 12.5 percent more salary and higher bonuses for regular work at night, on weekends and on public holidays.
In the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, around 2,500 clinicians went on strike all day at all six university hospitals, as a state spokesman for the Marburg Federation announced. The president of the North Rhine Medical Association, the long-time Marburger Bund boss Rudolf Henke, called out to the protesters at a rally in Düsseldorf: “It’s about the performance and attractiveness of the university hospitals as a place to work.” A poster with deliberately incorrect spelling read: “Fatigue doctors are making mistakes.” Another sign read: “Uniklinik: Come in and burn out.”
Around 2,000 strikers from Bavarian university hospitals came together on Marienplatz in Munich. In Stuttgart, protesting doctors placed a symbolic hospital bed in front of the Ministry of Finance – the doctors demanded a “financial infusion” for the clinics. At a doctors’ demonstration near the Kiel Ministry of Finance, posters read, among other things, “At night and on weekends I do it almost for free” and “I’m on strike so I can see the sun.” In Greifswald, doctors gathered in front of the university clinic for a so-called strike breakfast.
Schleswig-Holstein’s Finance Minister Heinold says she is hoping “that we will find a solution acceptable to both sides in the next round of negotiations at the end of March (…).” The university hospitals should be perceived as attractive and modern employers where people enjoy working. “Our challenge in the negotiations with the Marburger Bund is that we also have to take into account the salary development for the remaining 850,000 employees in the states,” said Heinold. Heinold named the public service as a framework for an overall package. Increases of more than 10 percent were agreed there at the end of 2023.
The negotiations are about the salaries of more than 20,000 doctors in 23 university hospitals. Other collective agreements apply to doctors in Berlin, Hamburg and Hesse./bw/DP/ngu
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