European Trade Union Committee for Education

In Germany, the fifth round of negotiations about higher wages for everyone working in educational jobs ended again without results. The Federation of Regional Employers' Associations (VKA) had made detailed offers for different staff groups but had continuously refused to correct the situation for nursery and pre-primary teachers as well.

Following many weeks of fruitless negotiations and regional warning strikes, no significant progress has been made this week at further talks. VKA offered  a corrected pay scale grouping for nursery and pre-primary teachers with certain qualifications. However, German ETUCE member GEW rejected this new proposal out of hand. The majority of people working at day-care facilities would be excluded from the benefits of a possible agreement.

Instead, the education union considers now to declare the negotiations to have failed and to initiate a ballot for indefinite strikes. GEW hopes that this measure might break VKA's obstructionist attitude. A decision of the relevant bodies on the breakdown of negotiations and the possible vote of GEW's members is expected during the next days.

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