Berlin Despite the increase in jobs in the public sector and above all in the federal government, the personnel situation is still dramatic. There are currently 360,000 missing or vacant jobs, said the re-elected chairman of the civil servants’ association, Ulrich Silberbach, at his organization’s trade union conference in Berlin. And in the next ten years, around 1.3 million colleagues retired. The austerity of the past is now taking its revenge.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) emphasized to the delegates in Berlin that Germany needs a strong public service – “especially now, especially in these times”. The civil servants set up accommodation or welcome classes for Ukrainian refugees, implemented the relief packages in the offices or familiarized themselves with the new basic income in the job centers.
But young professionals are often difficult to find. In the case of IT specialists or engineers, the public service cannot compete with the private sector, complained Silberbach. The fight against climate change threatens to fail due to an understaffed and poorly paid public service because there is a lack of personnel for planning and approval processes. The economy also suffers when the construction of a simple hall takes six to eight years.
In public administration today, for every ten employees who are 55 years of age or older, there are only around two employees under the age of 25. Plus points such as a secure job or a good work-life balance no longer seem to be enough to get young people interested in public service.
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The head of the civil service association, Silberbach, said that countries like Bavaria offer bonuses and bonuses that are higher than the collective bargaining agreement in order to be able to keep up with the private sector. But that is “cannibalism” because other federal states cannot keep up.
In order to make the public sector financially more attractive throughout the country, the Civil Service Association and Verdi are demanding 10.5 percent more money for the collective bargaining round for the federal and local governments starting in January, but at least 500 euros per month. Due to the minimum amount, the demand even amounts to almost 15 percent on average.
>> Read here: Civil Servants Association boss on the 15 percent collective bargaining demand: “The cost of living has risen dramatically”
Chancellor Scholz emphasized that the public service must “be attractive to the brightest minds”. He is therefore “expressly” committed to “fair and competitive payment”. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) is currently working on an amendment to the federal salary law that is intended to bring improvements in remuneration.
The federal government is thus reacting to the judgments of the Federal Constitutional Court, which had criticized the lack of a gap between civil servants’ salaries and basic state security.
Silberbach emphasized that the personnel problems were “not homemade, but budgetary”. There were now no teachers because the education system had been saved to make it black. And this despite the fact that Germany has taken in more than 200,000 Ukrainian children. It is high time for a teacher training offensive in the federal states.
One solution to the staff shortages in the offices would be greater digitization of administrative services. Chancellor Scholz emphasized that it should not be easier to book a flight than to register an apartment with an app.
Administrative procedures not fully digital
But reality looks different. Silberbach criticized that the digitized administration has so far mainly existed in glossy brochures. The “workflow” in the offices still largely takes place in paper form. In a leading motion for the trade union congress, the civil servants’ association criticizes the fact that Germany has been performing below average in international e-government rankings for years because far too little has been invested in digital infrastructure, technical equipment and personnel.
>> Read here: “A self-replicating system” – How the legal republic is slowing down digitization
It must be ensured that all administrative procedures are completely digital from start to finish: “A digital application from the citizen side must not be followed by an analogue process in the administration,” says the lead application.
He couldn’t have put it more beautifully himself, said the Chancellor. In the future, every law will be linked to a digital check to make it digitally compatible from the start. The traffic light will try this for the first time with the planned basic child security, said Scholz. But outside of his area of competence, in the case of federal states and municipalities, there is still a lot to do with the topic of administrative digitization.
Silberbach appealed to the head of government, after the political “turning point”, to initiate the “turnaround” in the personnel and remuneration policy of the public sector. The fact that two out of three citizens in a Forsa survey commissioned by the civil servants’ association currently consider the state to be incapable of acting should be a warning sign.
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