Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – According to the Verdi union, the months-long conflict between the management of six university clinics in North Rhine-Westphalia and their employees is coming to a head dramatically. After more than eight weeks of strike and 15 days of negotiation for a collective agreement discharge, the employers showed no willingness to cooperate and rejected the core demands of the union and the employees.
“With yesterday’s declaration by the employers that there will be no regulations with them to compensate for the real stress and overload situations that arise for the individual employees, the clinic directors are questioning the core of the collective bargaining agreement,” said Verdi country manager Gabriele Schmidt on Wednesday . Verdi spoke of an escalation at the negotiating table. “The black-green state government now has to put its foot down, because the clinic management is now also contesting the recognition of the collective wage agreement,” Schmidt continued.
That was an “affront to the state government,” emphasized Schmidt shortly before the proposed bill to amend the Higher Education Act was to be discussed and passed in the state parliament. With the necessary change in the law, the way should be cleared for a collective agreement relief. According to the information, Verdi now even sees the collective agreement of the federal states (TV-L), the basic collective agreement on income, working hours, vacation, company pension schemes, etc. in danger.
NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann had assured that the general collective agreement would remain untouched. Now it is up to the new government coalition of the CDU and the Greens, as well as to Laumann personally, “to reject this escalation and to make it clear to the clinic directors that the promise of the state government” applies. “Otherwise we’ll be in a permanent conflict with no end in sight,” Schmidt threatened.
Verdi announced that Laumann wanted to speak to the strikers in front of the state parliament on Thursday. Following this, the union wants to provide information on the current status of collective bargaining at noon (12.30 p.m.).
