Civil servants' association accuses state employers of ignorance
The head of the dbb civil servants' association, Ulrich Silberbach, has accused employers of ignorance in the wage dispute for the public service of the federal states. The Verdi and dbb trade unions have been negotiating with the Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder (TdL) in Potsdam since Thursday in the third round of talks on the income of more than one million public sector employees. According to estimates from negotiating circles, the negotiations, which were originally scheduled to last two days, will probably continue until Saturday.
Silberbach did not want to give any concrete details on the status of the negotiations. "The mood is that we are still shocked by the ignorance with which the employers in the federal states are looking at the situation of employees in the federal states," he said in front of demonstrating union members. Silberbach appeared together with the head of the train drivers' union, Claus Weselsky. He wanted to demonstrate solidarity with the train drivers on strike at Deutsche Bahn. The GDL is a member of the umbrella organization dbb, but both collective bargaining rounds are taking place independently of each other.
Silberbach said that the TdL was making calculations in the negotiations. "But nothing is concrete yet." "Reasonable staffing levels" are necessary for internal security and good education in Germany, for example. However, the reality of the public sector is: "Today, there is a shortfall of 300,000 employees in the traditional administrative service." Without a significantly better collective agreement, the staffing situation threatens to deteriorate further in times of inflation.
The trade unions are demanding a 10.5 percent increase in income, but at least 500 euros more, more money for employees in the city states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen as well as collectively agreed wages for student employees. This is too expensive for the TdL due to the tight budget situation in many federal states.
Read also:
- Year of climate records: extreme is the new normal
- Precautionary arrests show Islamist terror threat
- SPD rules out budget resolution before the end of the year
- Numerous oil, gas and coal lobbyists at climate conference
The ignorance displayed by country-employers in understanding the plight of civil service employees, as mentioned by Ulrich Silberbach, has led to stalemate in the collective bargaining negotiations. Despite the TdL's calculations in the negotiations, the civil service association and trade unions are demanding a significant wage increase and improved conditions for over a million public sector employees.
Source: www.ntv.de
