Social Services, Work-life balance, Germany

(June 2016) Members of the services union ver.di working for the Median rehabilitation clinic in Berlin took strike action on 17 June as part of the union's campaign to defend collective bargaining. Median is the largest private provider of rehabilitation services with 13000 employees in 78 facilities across the country. The company announced it would no longer negotiate a collective agreement and would look to local arrangements with works councils or individual employees. Ver.di has strongly attacked the company, owned since 2014 by the Dutch investment fund Waterland, for aiming to maximise

(July 2016) The ver.di services union organised a demonstration at the national health ministers' conference on 29 June calling for an increase in trained staff in the eldercare sector. The union argues that staff are already overworked and that the current level of staffing is completely inadequate to cope with future increased demand. Workers are committed to their job and many become ill and have to take time off work as a result of trying to manage excessive workloads. Ver.di also criticised private eldercare providers for calling for a reduction in the quota of trained staff. Read more at

On 17 October the Labour Court in Nordhausen in central Germany ruled that two employees of the Celenus social care company had been unfairly dismissed for trade union activity and should be reinstated. Carmen Laue and Heike Schmidt, members of the ver.di service union, were summarily sacked in April for distributing leaflets as part of a long-running, and continuing campaign for better pay at Celenus which is part of the Orpea social care multinational. EPSU and its affiliates from France, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Spain that also organise in Orpea sent messages of support.

Ver.di, the main trade union in the health sector, is close to securing an agreement on staffing and workloads with Augsburg hospital in Bavaria. As the institution is set to become a university hospital from 1 January next year, the agreement has to be confirmed by the state health minister. Ver.di members at the hospital have voted 93% in favour of industrial action and so the union says it is ready to take action if the agreement is rejected. Similar to other agreements negotiated recently in hospitals in North Rhine Westphalia and Saarland, the Augsburg deal will mean additional jobs - 100

The ver.di health and social care union organised a national action day in the eldercare sector on 21 November. Along with local events across the country, the union coordinated a national photo action involving thousands of care workers. The aim of the day was to highlight the need for better pay and working conditions and more staff to tackle the increasing demands on the sector. Ver.di points out that staff face excessive overtime, extra shifts at short notice and long hours without breaks. The federal government is committed to creating 13000 new jobs in the sector but ver.di argues that

EPSU has sent solidarity greetings to members of the ver.di services union who are taking strike action against the Celenus care company, a subsidiary of the French multinational Orpea. The company has sacked worker representatives, has threatened to outsource cleaning jobs and refuses to negotiate a collective agreement.

The ver.di services union has called on employers of all kinds across the eldercare sector to negotiate a sector agreement. The union argues that this is needed urgently to ensure better pay for eldercare workers and that they all are covered by a sector agreement whether they work for the private for profit, non-profit or public sectors. Ver.di has welcomed steps taken by non-profit welfare organisations to create an employers' organisation and argues that the next step is a sector agreement that will help improve the attractiveness of the sector and tackle staffing shortages. The union's

Employees of the Celenus health company, part of the Orpea multinational, continued their campaign for a collective agreement when they travelled to a protest in Berlin on 11 December where they joined other striking workers from the Charité physiotherapy clinic. The workers at Celenus's rehabilitation clinic in Bad Langensalza in the Thüringen region are involved in long-running strike action in an attempt to secure a collective agreement and better pay. The company has repeatedly refused to negotiate with the ver.di trade union. Action last year was supported by EPSU and its affiliates that

In advance of the third round of pay negotiations, a series of warning strikes by employees of the Red Cross have been taking place across the country to show the level of support for a decent pay rise. Public services union ver.di is calling for a pay rise of 7.5% with a minimum increase of EUR 200 a month. So far the employers have only offered a EUR 220 lump sum payment and a 2.4% increase this year with a further rise of 2.2% in July 2019. Ver.di says that the agreement should reflect current pay bargaining trends and should also include provisions on work-life balance and health that

Over 70000 workers joined the initial round of warning strikes in support of the negotiations covering federal and municipal workers. The focus was on the North-Rhine Westfalia region but further action is planned around the country, involving a broad range of workers from childcare and water to administration and transport. The services union ver.di is determined to secure a real wage increase for all workers, ensuring that any percentage rise is underpinned by a flat-rate amount to benefit lower paid workers.

Services union ver.di is celebrating the best negotiating result in many years for federal and municipal workers who will see pay rise by 7.5% in a new 30-month agreement. There will be increases of 3.19% on 1 March 2018, 3.09% on 1 April 2019 and 1.06% on 1 March 2020. The increases will be implemented through a fundamental revision of the pay structure, including particular changes to lower pay levels. The aim was to ensure faster pay developments in early stages of a career to make the sector more attractive and also to close the gap where there are big differences with the private sector

A survey by the ver.di services trade union and DGB trade union confederation reveals sharp differences between occupations when it comes to workloads and stress. Four out of five nurses say that they often feel harassed because of excessive workloads. This is higher than the 69% of eldercare workers and well above the 55% registered across all occupations. There are similar differences when it comes to employees saying that have to cut corners on quality to ensure service delivery. This was the case for 49% of nurses, 42% of eldercare workers but only 22% of all occupations. Not surprising