The wages in the health system of the federal states are to rise by 300 euros according to the ideas of the unions.
(Photo: imago images / Mike Schmidt)
Berlin Corona debts, rising inflation and a dispute over the classification of employees – the upcoming country wage round promises to be full of conflict. If the union demands were met, the state budgets would have to pay additional annual costs of 7.5 billion euros, said the chairman of the collective bargaining association of German states (TdL), Lower Saxony’s finance minister Reinhold Hilbers (CDU), the Handelsblatt. This is “illusory”.
The trade unions Verdi and DBB Beamtenbund and Tarifunion are demanding five percent more money for the employees, but at least 150 euros, with a term of twelve months. The wages of the employees in the health care system, who, for example, helped in the fight against the corona pandemic in the university clinics, are to be increased by 300 euros per month.
As a result of the minimum amounts called up, the highest increase is actually 7.2 percent, in the care sector even 12.8 percent – and thus significantly above the required five percent, emphasized Hilbers.
The negotiations, which begin on Friday in Berlin, directly affect 1.1 million employees of the federal states. Hessen left the TdL in 2004 and has been negotiating on its own since then. If the conclusion, as expected by the unions, is also transferred to civil servants and pension recipients in the federal states and municipalities, a total of around 3.5 million people would be affected.
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Employer: “Limited scope for distribution”
The employers point out that the tax revenues of the federal states are still well below the pre-crisis level and that the scope for distribution is therefore limited. In the past year, the tax revenues of the federal, state and local governments fell by around 7.5 percent to 740 billion euros compared to the previous year. In the case of the federal government, however, the minus of 14 percent was significantly more pronounced than in the case of the federal states with 2.5 percent.
In addition, the loans taken out in the corona crisis have to be repaid. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the federal states were in debt at the end of the first half of the year with a total of 639.9 billion euros, an increase of 0.6 percent compared to the end of 2020.
The repayment plans of the states provide for the repayment of corona debts prescribed in the debt brake, however, which range from three years in Saxony-Anhalt to 50 years in North Rhine-Westphalia. Verdi boss Frank Werneke has therefore already made it clear that he will not accept financial burdens from short-term repayment periods as an argument in the negotiations.
Hilbers warns of a wage-price spiral
The return of inflation – in September consumer prices rose by more than four percent for the first time in almost 28 years – neither employers nor unions want to overestimate at the moment. The current values are strongly driven by temporary effects such as the temporarily reduced VAT, said Hilbers. But one must be careful not to set a wage-price spiral in motion now.
Verdi estimates an inflation rate of between three and 3.5 percent for the current year and more than 2.5 percent for 2022. But one still sees “no runaway inflation,” said Werneke.
A major point of contention in the talks is likely to be the country’s demand to make the work process an issue. In essence, it is about the question of how certain activities are assessed and how this is reflected in the classification of employees. The greater the proportion of more complex activities in a work process, the higher the classification.
However, the Federal Labor Court had reassessed the work process in the case of a Berlin judicial clerk, which led to the plaintiff being upgraded. Since then, the countries have been faced with thousands of classification complaints. The TdL has lodged a constitutional complaint after the judgment of the Federal Labor Court, but also wants to achieve a reassessment of the work process through negotiation.
Workers fear being downgraded
The unions do not want to talk about the issue, however, because they fear that doing so will open Pandora’s box. “If we give in, it will have consequences for the grouping of all employees,” said the Verdi board member responsible for the public service, Christine Behle, recently warning of journalists in Berlin. The employee representatives fear a downgrading on a broad front.
“Permanently high inflation is always driven by wages.”
(Photo: imago images / Bernd Günther)
TdL boss Hilbers only wants to talk about demands from the union such as special benefits for health workers if the work process is also dealt with – even at the risk of provoking a labor dispute. It could not be “that only trade union demands are negotiated and our own are left out,” said the Lower Saxony finance minister.
After the kick-off in Berlin on October 8th, there are two more negotiation dates for the 1st and 2nd November and the 27./28. November scheduled in Potsdam. Two years ago, both sides agreed on a three-stage increase in fees by a total of eight percent over a period of 33 months. At that time, the unions stood up with the demand for six percent more money for a year, but at least 200 euros.
More: Hilbers: “We don’t want to take anything away from anyone”