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German States’ Public-Sector Unions Unveil 7% Pay Demand as December Talks Set

Talks open December 3 without an arbitration mechanism, raising the risk of enforceable strikes.

Overview

  • Verdi and the dbb are seeking a 7% raise with a floor of €300 per month on a 12‑month deal, plus €200 more for trainees and guaranteed hiring after successful training.
  • The round covers roughly 1.2 million Länder employees outside Hesse, with unions also seeking parallel application to about 1.3 million civil servants and affecting many pensioners.
  • Negotiations with the TdL start in Berlin on December 3 and are scheduled to continue on January 15–16 and February 11–13 in Potsdam.
  • TdL chair Andreas Dressel rejected the scale of the demand as excessive given roughly 2% inflation, citing annual costs of about €4 billion for employees and €12.6 billion including civil servants.
  • Union leaders argue the increase is needed to tackle severe staffing shortages, pointing to about 600,000 vacancies across federal, state and local government and competition for skilled workers.