Collective bargaining in the public sector has failed. However, an arbitration procedure can initially avert further strikes.
Collective bargaining for the public sector at federal and local level has failed. Employers and unions did not reach a result in the last of three planned rounds of negotiations. “In the end we had to realize that the differences could not be bridged,” said Verdi boss Frank Werneke early Thursday morning in Potsdam.
Werneke said that Verdi had declared the failure of the negotiations. The trade union bodies had decided this unanimously. The head of the civil servants’ association dbb, Ulrich Silberbach, also expressed his views on behalf of his union.
Faeser: We will call for arbitration
With a breakthrough, new warning strikes or strikes could have been averted. However, failure does not necessarily result in new outstanding debts. Either party may initiate arbitration within 24 hours of the declaration of failure.
Werneke said: “We don’t intend to call arbitration ourselves. The decision lies with the employers.” And they answered immediately: “We will now convene the arbitration,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) early Thursday morning in Potsdam.
In such a case, the previously appointed independent arbitrators would propose a solution within a set period of time.
What does arbitration mean?
- How does the stratification work?
According to fixed rules and deadlines. From Sunday onwards there will be a peace obligation – warning strikes will then be ruled out until after Easter. The chairs of the arbitration commission are the former Prime Minister of Saxony Georg Milbradt from the employers’ side and the former Bremen State Councilor Hans-Henning Lühr for the trade unions – Lühr with the decisive vote in case of doubt. - How can the arbitration end?
With an agreement – if both sides accept the arbitration award expected in mid-April. As the example of the most recent comprehensive strikes in the public sector shows, arbitration does not necessarily bring about a breakthrough. In 1992, an arbitrator’s verdict was not accepted – around ten-day, nationwide strikes followed. - What’s on the negotiating table?The employers offered 8 percent more income and a minimum amount of 300 euros and a one-off payment of 3,000 euros. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said that people could have been helped very quickly right now in May – after all, the costs are very high right now. “And I think that would have been in the interests of the employees to have a quick solution now.”
Verdi boss Werneke spoke of irreconcilable differences. The public employers are “not in a position to take the first step towards the employees and their unions in order to actually make a socially just degree possible”. The unions had demanded 10.5 percent more wages, but at least 500 euros more.
Many employees, for example in day-care centers, swimming pools or garbage disposal, are currently only just getting paid, as was repeatedly heard in many interviews during the strikes. In January and February, too, consumer prices were 8.7 percent above the level of the same month last year. Now the conclusion is to compensate for the stubbornly high inflation and a real wage increase. Werneke described “a socially balanced collective agreement, a social component, a minimum amount” as “the most important thing for the employees”.
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In the past few weeks, the unions had paralyzed public transport, but also daycare centers, clinics and garbage disposal with massive warning strikes.
Verdi sees itself strengthened by the massive warning strikes of the past few weeks. Verdi boss Frank Werneke spoke of the “largest warning strike participation for many years and decades”. The union recorded over 70,000 entries in the past three months.
Affected by the collective bargaining in the public sector are members of a number of professions – including educators, bus drivers, employees of pools, firefighters, nurses, administrative employees, geriatric nurses, sewage treatment plant employees, foresters and doctors. It is about the income of more than 2.4 million employees of the municipal employers and 134,000 of the federal government. According to the will of the trade unions, the result should be transferred to the civil servants.
