German union threatens public sector strike after talks stall

German union threatens public sector strike after talks stall
AFP - Thursday, March 27 07:27 pm

BERLIN (AFP) - German services union Verdi on Thursday threatened public sector strikes after it rejected a proposed wage deal for more than one million workers offered in arbitration.

The arbitrators proposed meeting employees' wage demands of an eight-percent pay hike to offset higher food and fuel costs.

But they linked it to an increase of working hours for staff in the west of the country to 39.5 hours. Working hours vary in the west, but many work less than this.

In eastern states, most workers currently work about 40 hours per week.

"The recommendation of the arbitrators in this form is not acceptable," Verdi head Frank Bsirske told reporters.

He said the offer by the arbitrators, a former premier of the southern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and an ex-mayor of the northern city of Hanover, marked "a continuation of the real wage losses of the last years into the future."

The Federation of Municipal Employers' Associations (VKA) had accepted the higher wage demands after initially offering a four-percent pay increase.

"The union officials are on ideological grounds putting the question of working hours ahead of putting money in the pockets of workers," VKA chief Manfred Hoffmann said in a statement.

The next round of arbitrated talks had been scheduled for Saturday but Hoffmann warned that the unions' stance did "not bode well."

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble called union's rejection of the offer "regrettable and incomprehensible."

He said the compromise proposal represented "significant concessions" that would cost federal employers alone about one billion euros (1.6 billion dollars).

Verdi members would have to vote before going on strike. German labour law does not permit a strike while the parties are in arbitration.

About 1.3 million public service sector workers are affected by the negotiations and any strike would wreak havoc across the country.

Earlier this month, a series of warning strikes called by Verdi closed schools, stopped garbage collection and snarled traffic at airports across the country.

Germany's unions have grown increasingly militant in the last year as workers demand their share of the fruits of an economic upturn.