Berlin (Reuters) – Verdi boss Frank Werneke expects tough collective bargaining disputes for the federal states’ public services.
“I expect that collective bargaining will be difficult,” said the trade unionist on Monday evening in Berlin. It is not inevitable that the talks that began on Thursday will lead to the same conclusion as the negotiations for federal and local government employees. According to Verdi calculations, there were income increases of an average of 11.5 percent in April, with a contract term of 24 months. The negotiations with the states start on Thursday in Berlin and will then continue in Potsdam. An agreement is not expected before the third round, scheduled for December 7-8.
Verdi and the German Civil Service Association (dbb) want to implement wage increases of 10.5 percent, but at least 500 euros more per month, for a period of twelve months. The negotiator of the collective bargaining community of the states (TdL), Hamburg’s Finance Senator Andreas Dressel, described this as unfinanceable given the states’ budget situation.
Werneke said it was becoming apparent that the TDL wanted to achieve a worse outcome than what had been achieved at the federal and local levels. “The employees of the federal states do not want and will not want to be left behind,” emphasized the Verdi boss. The discussions are being held for around 1.2 million collective bargaining employees in the states (except Hesse). Verdi is calling for the results to be transmitted simultaneously to around 1.3 million civil servants. Around a million pensioners are also affected. The states’ collective bargaining employees work, among other things, in road construction, in the judiciary, in financial and tax authorities, in daycare centers and schools, at universities, clinics and in administration.
(Report by Klaus Lauer; Edited by Scot W. Stevenson; If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or [email protected] (for companies and markets) .)