Title: Surprise Cancellation of Doctor Strikes in Municipal Hospitals
After months of unsuccessful negotiation sessions, the collective bargaining dispute between doctors and their municipal clinic employers has finally been resolved. The strike, which was imminently scheduled, was averted as both parties reached an agreement just before its announcement. The doctors will soon experience a gradual wage adjustment, as per the agreement.
The dispute involving around 60,000 doctors in municipal hospitals spanned over several rounds of collective bargaining. Following five unsuccessful negotiations, the Marburger Bund, representing the doctors, voted in favor of strikes in December. However, the situation drastically changed during exploratory talks on Monday.
The revised agreement includes a four percent wage increase, effective retroactively to July 1, 2024. The wage adjustment will be followed by a two percent increase on August 1 of this year, and another two percent hike on June 1, 2026. Allowances for on-call duties and the emergency service deployment surcharge will also see an increase.
The allowances for shift and rotating shift work will now stand at a total of 315 euros per month. This also applies to night work and Saturday work, with better remuneration for short-term coverage of shift and rotating shift work. The newly agreed terms will be submitted to the Marburger Bund's members for a vote, with the results anticipated in the second week of February.
The union's first chairwoman, Susanne Johna, described the agreement as making "substantial progress compared to the previous negotiating position," even though they had hoped for more in the area of shift work regulation reform.
The collective agreement affects doctors in municipal hospitals nationwide, excluding only a few hospitals, including the Vivantes clinics in Berlin and others in Eastern Germany, which have separate agreements.
Overall, the Marburger Bund, the association of employed physicians, has been involved in wage negotiations and protests in Germany. While the specifics of the current agreement between the Marburger Bund and the Association of Municipal Employers' Associations (VKA) are not explicitly mentioned in available sources, recent reports and trends suggest wage negotiations and disputes are common within various industries in Germany, including the automotive sector.
The resolved dispute brought significant changes to the remuneration of the medical staff. Under the new agreement, the doctors will receive a four percent wage increase, effective from July 1, 2024. Moreover, the medical staff will also benefit from additional increase in allowances for on-call duties and the emergency service deployment surcharge.
