Precarious employment, Health, Germany

(May 2016) Member of the ver.di union at the Charité hospital group in Berlin have voted overwhelmingly to accept a collective agreement with important provisions on jobs, staff levels and health and safety. A joint committee will monitor implementation of the agreement.The agreement will cover 14000 employees and ver.di hopes it will be a model for the sector where the union is campaigning for legal rules on minimum staffing levels. Read more at > ver.di (DE)

(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

(August 2016) The ver.di service union has negotiated improved pay, hours and holiday entitlement in a new collective agreement covering 50000 workers employed by the German Red Cross. Pay will increase by 2.4% this month with a further rise of 2.35% in March 2017 and the pay structure agreed in the public sector for social services workers will be adopted. Emergency service workers will see a gradual reducation in weekly working hours from 48 to 45 by 2019 while those with less than 10 years' service will also see their annual leave increase from 26 to 29 days over the same period. Read more

(August 2016) Services union ver.di is concerned about the impact on workers' rights of the takeover of the AHG group by the Median company. With the takeover Median will become largest rehabilitation company in Germany with 15000 workers but it has taken a stance against collective bargaining under the influence of its main investing company Waterland. It has said to ver.di it will no longer negotiate collective agreements. Read more at ver.di (DE)

(September 2016) Ver.di members working for Ameos healthcare company in Hildesheim and Osnabrück in Lower Saxony are voting on new collective agreement secured only after a long conflict. The new agreements will run for three years until 30 April 2019 and includes a 6.75% pay increase to be paid over six stages. Other key elements include a continuing link to developments in the public sector agreements, a commitment to take on agency staff as direct employees and a commitment to no redundancies. Read more at ver.di (DE).

(September 2016) Services union ver.di organised warning strikes and a national protest in Berlin against Germany's largest rehabilitation company, Reha. The company gave notice in August that it was ending the current collective agreement and wanted to move to enterprise-level agreements. The union has attacked the company for being a major recipient of public money while denying rights to its workforce. Ver.di is calling for a new agreement and an 8% pay increase covering the 2700 workers institutions in the Eastern region of the company.

(November 2016) Service union ver.di has taken two initiatives to tackle staff shortages in hospitals and eldercare. As the first step in a national campaign, the union has called on all 21 hospitals in the Saarland region, whether public, private or non-profit, to negotiate agreements to increase staff, regulate working time and reduce workloads.Meanwhile, ver.di also launched a postcard campaign to highlight the vital work done by employees in eldercare institutions who are similarly facing increasing pressure of work and a major shortage of staff.

(January 2017) Health services union ver.di has submitted a claim for a 6% pay increase with a minimum of EUR 150 for the 10000 workers employed by the Sana group of clinics. The private company runs 20 clinics that are covered by the company collective agreement. Ver.di argues that workers have helped the company achieve a signfiicant rise in profits and so should have their fair share.

(January 2017) Services union ver.di coordinated a warning strike in all 21 hospitals in the Saarland region as part of a campaign to negotiate agreements with the hospital employers to deal with overwork and understaffing. The union will be meeting with employers in February to discuss the situation but has warned that further action will follow if the employers refuse to get involved in meaningful negotiations. A major demonstration is planned for International Women's Day on 8 March.

(March 2017) Public service union ver.di organised a national "take your break" day on 21 February for all hospital workers. The union wanted to make the point that understaffing and excessive workloads means that many healthcare staff miss their breaks because they want to ensure the level of care for patients. A survey by ver.di revealed that 70% of hospital workers on night shift said they didn't take any breaks. The action is organised across all public, private, welfare and church-run institutions.

(April 2017) Services union ver.di has signed a key agreement in Bremen that covers around 3200 eldercare workers employed by several non-profit care providers. The union sees this is as a significant step towards better collective bargaining coverage in the sector and helps remove pay and conditions as a factor in competition. Meanwhile the union has also negotiated two new agreements in the health sector, one provides a 7,3% pay increase for 3900 workers at the University Hospital in Leipzig and the other is a 5.1% pay increase for the 24000 employees in 36 hospitals run by the Helios

(May 2017) Services union ver.di reports on two significant bargaining developments in the Sana healthcare company and in the non-profit care sector in the Saxony-Anhalt region. Sana's 10000 workers will get a 2.2% pay rise backdated to 1 January this year and a further 2.2% from 1 February 2018 along with several other improvements to pay and conditions, including two extra days off for ver.di members only. The new pay agreement in Saxony-Anhalt covers 4000 care workers employed by the regional welfare federation and is backdated to 2016 while providing pay increases until 2018. Ver.di sees

(May 2017) Two members of ver.di with the support of their union and the DGB confederation have won an important ruling in the European Court of Justice that protects the link between their pay and conditions and the public sector collective agreement. The two hospital employees were part of a transfer to a private company in 1997 but were then transferred again when the Asklepios company won the contract. Asklepios refused to maintain the link with the public sector collective agreement arguing that it was not party to the original negotiations. The European Court decided in favour of the

(July 2017) A new report from the BKK business health insurance federation reveals the extent to which stress and overwork are having a negative impact on employees in the health and care sectors. With a shortfall of over 160000 workers in the sector, many employees are under a lot of pressure, working long hours and missing breaks. Workers in the sector take an average of 24 days' sick leave a year compared to 16 for workers across all sectors. Services union ver.di underlined the need for minimum staffing levels and for higher collective bargaining coverage in the sector.

Services union ver.di is targetting a selection of public and private hospitals in seven regions, calling on them to negotiate agreements to reduce excessive workloads. The union argues that many healthworkers are under pressure to work long hours to fill the gap left by a shortage of 162000 workers across the sector. This is having a detrimental impact on workers' health and ver.di wants employers to recognise this and their responsibility to provide good working conditions.