The German Civil Service Association (DBB) will push for the wage rise for employees of the state governments in the next round of wage negotiations, union boss Rainer Wendt told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
The union claims that after years of restraint, it is time for workers to share in the spoils of the booming economy. The lean years were over, Wendt said, and public service union members were entitled to expect a wage rise now that the economy had recovered.
Public servants have had to put up with a considerable effective loss of income in recent years through longer working hours, he said.
In a warning shot across the bow, Wendt added that employers could expect a turbulent start to next year if they rejected the reasonable proposals by the union.
“The states have to know, that the patience of the workers has come to an end and there is a mood for protest,” he said.
Lower Saxony Finance Minister Hartmut Möllring declared in August that state workers could not expect wage rises in coming years. In the face of growing state debt, government workers had to show restraint. Möllring is also chairman of the group that deals with wages for the states – and will therefore lead negotiations with the union on a new deal starting in January.
“We have to limit spending rises to 1 percent at the most,” Möllring has said in the past.
The Local/dw
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