Collective bargaining has failed.
(Photo: IMAGO/Martin Müller)
Berlin, Potsdam 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.
With a breakthrough, new warning strikes or strikes could have been averted. However, failure does not necessarily result in new outstanding debts. Independent arbitrators will now seek a solution. “We will now convene the arbitration,” said 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. During an arbitration there is a peace obligation. There would then be no new warning strikes until after Easter. The employers have not yet commented.
Demand for a 10.5 percent increase in salary
The unions had demanded 10.5 percent more money for the employees, but at least 500 euros a month, with a term of the collective agreement of twelve months. The demand had already been decided in October of last year under the impression of the then still very high inflation rates.
The VKA had pointed out the tense financial situation of many municipalities, which also suffered from the increased energy prices and the generally high inflation as well as the employees.
The federal government had built a “golden bridge” for the parties to the collective bargaining agreement with the offer that employers could pay each employee up to 3,000 euros in inflation adjustment premiums until the end of 2024, without taxes and social security contributions being due.
The hope: For this, the collective bargaining partners should hold back on long-term wage increases that could trigger a wage-price spiral. Verdi boss Werneke always emphasized that one-off payments are not sustainable. Prices remained high even after the compensatory premiums had long since ceased to have an effect.
>> Read here: The Chief Economist: Why there will be no wage-price spiral
The employers submitted an initial offer in the second round. It provided for a two-stage wage increase totaling five percent and a tax and duty-free inflation compensation premium of 2,500 euros, with a term of the wage agreement of 27 months.
The trade unions had increased the pressure on employers with a warning strike.
(Photo: dpa)
Verdi, which also negotiates for the Education and Science Union (GEW), the Police Union (GdP) and the Building-Agricultural-Environment Industrial Union (IG BAU), and the civil servants’ association had rejected the offer as insufficient and their warning strike activities that had already started intensified again.
400,000 workers involved in warning strikes
According to Verdi, around 400,000 employees had taken part in warning strikes by the end of last week. On Monday of this week, Verdi then increased the pressure again and called for a nationwide transport strike together with the railway and transport union (EVG), which is involved in collective bargaining with Deutsche Bahn and other companies. As a result, air traffic, long-distance and regional rail traffic and parts of local public transport largely came to a standstill.
With the public service, a deal has now failed in the face of high inflation rates in the third high-employment industry. For the 580,000 employees in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry, the collective bargaining parties last agreed in October last year on a two-stage wage increase totaling 6.5 percent.
>> Read here: Collective bargaining agreement stands: Chemical workers receive a percentage increase and a special payment
In addition, an inflation premium of EUR 3,000 was agreed, which will be paid out in two tranches. The term of the collective agreement is 20 months. As part of a “bridging solution”, the chemical workers had already received a one-off payment of 1,400 euros in May 2022.
An agreement was reached in November 2022 in the metal and electrical industry with its 3.9 million employees. A two-stage percentage increase of a total of 8.5 percent was agreed with a 24-month term of the collective agreement. As in chemistry, there is an inflation premium of 3000 euros, which is paid out in two stages. Both the industrial union for mining, chemicals and energy (IG BCE) and IG Metall claimed that they had largely compensated for the price increases.
The last deal for the federal government and local authorities from 2020 was still under the impression of the corona pandemic. At that time, the employees received a special payment of 300, 400 or 600 euros, depending on the salary group. In addition, the fees were increased in two stages by a total of 3.2 percent.
With agency material from the dpa.
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