Public Sector Employees to Receive Historic Pay Increase in New Collective Agreement

Stand date: 23. April 2023.

The employees will gradually receive 3,000 euros to compensate for inflation. From March 2024 also 200 euros and 5.5 percent more wages. But at least 340 euros.

The negotiating parties followed the recommendation of the arbitrators with the collective bargaining agreement in the public sector. The Bremen and former State Councilor Hans-Henning Lühr had worked out this proposal with the commission.

According to this, employees in the public sector are to receive tax- and duty-free one-off payments totaling 3,000 euros in order to dampen the effects of inflation. The first 1,240 euros will be paid in June; From July and until February 2024, this will be followed by 220 euros per month.

According to the agreement, from March 2024 the employees will then receive a basic amount of EUR 200 gross per month as well as a subsequent increase of 5.5 percent – but at least EUR 340 gross more. The term of the new collective agreement is 24 months.

360 euros gross more for a cleaner

“This is the largest tariff increase in post-war history in the public sector,” said Verdi boss Frank Werneke after the talks. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said that with this degree, a cleaning worker in the public sector could receive 360 ​​euros or 13.3 percent more in the future.

Werneke said: “As part of this collective bargaining agreement, a nurse gets a permanent monthly pay increase of 400 euros. Or a garbage worker of 357 euros.” This corresponds to an increase of 13.4 percent.

“Most Expensive Collective Agreement Ever”

The total cost of the contract for the agreed term for the federal government was around 4.95 billion euros. “We accommodated the unions as far as we could still be responsible for in the difficult budgetary situation,” said Faeser. The municipalities are even assuming a multiple of this burden.

The President of the Association of Municipal Employers’ Associations, Karin Welge, spoke of the “most expensive collective bargaining agreement of all time”, which will cost the already cash-strapped cities and communities around 17 billion euros. “The municipal employers went to the financial limit with this compromise,” said Welge after the agreement.

Union vote

Verdi and the German Association of Civil Servants had originally demanded 10.5 percent, but at least 500 euros more per month, referring above all to the heavy burden on employees due to high inflation. In March alone, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office, the increase in food prices reached 22.3 percent compared to the previous year, the highest level since the outbreak of war in Ukraine at the end of February 2022. The new collective agreement does not achieve these rates of increase.

The collective bargaining agreement applies to thousands of professions – including educators, bus drivers, pool employees, firefighters, nurses, administrative employees, geriatric nurses, sewage treatment plant employees, foresters and doctors. Verdi and the civil servants’ association are now letting their own members vote on the decision made on Saturday. However, Werneke expressed his conviction that he could win the members over to the agreement.

This topic in the program:
Bremen Eins, news, April 23, 2023, 8 a.m