The government unions have been negotiating a new sectoral agreement for the approximately 60,000 federal civil servants in our country for months. More purchasing power is urgently needed for those civil servants, says Gino Hoppe, secretary at the government union ACOD Public Services. “The wage scales have not risen for twenty years. All those years we have only received the index, but everyone gets that,” says Hoppe.
In addition to higher wage scales, the unions are also asking for a full thirteenth month for the civil servants. “Today, that thirteenth month is 60 to 65 percent for civil servants. We want a full thirteenth month.”
The federal government tells the unions that there is no budget available. They do get the promise that there would be budgetary room in 2023. “But we can’t negotiate like that. We want to know how much budget will be released,” the unions said.
Due to the high inflation, civil servants can count on four indexations of their wages this year alone. “Everyone has the right to those indexations. Two percent? The civil servants with the lowest wages can drive to the supermarket there. And maybe back again. But they won’t get inside. We want respect for their work. It is thanks to the officials that everything has continued to run during the corona crisis,” said the ACOD secretary.