60,000 doctors affected
Is there a risk of a doctors’ strike in January?
Updated on December 19, 2024Reading time: 1 Min.
The collective agreements of doctors in municipal clinics are repeatedly criticized. Wage negotiations have been going on for months – there is a threat of a strike.
A large majority of the members of the Marburger Bund voted in favor of strikes at municipal clinics. The union announced on Wednesday that 92 percent of the participating members were in favor of indefinite industrial action in the sense of a full strike.
The Grand Collective Bargaining Commission then decided in a special meeting to clear the way for indefinite strikes from January 15th. The state associations of the Marburger Bund determine the exact design.
The overwhelming vote is a clear signal to the Association of Municipal Employers’ Associations (VKA) to finally “switch into a sensible negotiation mode,” explained the chairwoman of the Marburger Bund, Susanne Johna. “If the VKA continues to show no willingness to accommodate the doctors in the municipal clinics, we will begin indefinite strike action on January 15th.”
The union is calling for a reform of the shift and alternating duty regulations, an increase in salaries by 8.5 percent and financial improvements in on-call and on-call duty with a term of the collective agreement of twelve months. The VKA recently offered a gradual 5.5 percent increase in salary over a period of 30 months, as well as an increase in the night allowance from 15 to 20 percent and a one-off payment of 500 euros.
In mid-November, collective bargaining failed after five unsuccessful rounds of negotiations. The collective agreement in question applies to around 60,000 doctors in municipal hospitals nationwide. The exceptions are the Vivantes clinics in Berlin and some clinics, especially in East Germany, which have in-house collective agreements.