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.
Unions do not want 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.”
In such a case, the previously appointed independent arbitrators would propose a solution within a set period of time.
During an arbitration there is a peace obligation. There would then be no new warning strikes until after Easter. “We will now convene the arbitration,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) early Thursday morning in Potsdam.
A minimum payment of 500 euros per month is required
Since Monday, trade unions and employers in Potsdam have been negotiating the incomes of 2.5 million employees in their third round of negotiations. Discussions between the negotiating leaders and consultations between the individual collective bargaining partners kept changing. There was a lot of internal clarification needed at the Association of Municipal Employers’ Associations (VKA).
The Verdi union and the civil servants’ association dbb are demanding 10.5 percent more income, but at least 500 euros more per month. This minimum amount is crucial for them: for those on low incomes, this should compensate for the high inflation. The VKA had long rejected a minimum amount.
Employers offer one-off payments
The employers had also rejected the demands as a whole as unaffordable. For the second round of negotiations in February, they submitted an offer that was significantly lower. They offered 5 percent more wages and one-off payments of initially 1,500 and later another 1,000 euros. The unions reacted with outrage and organized ever larger warning strikes.
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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.
