Too long deployment times, too many trivial cases, dramatic staff shortages: An alliance of organized rescue workers in Germany describes an industry that is on the verge of collapse. According to the alliance, more training and shorter working hours could help to solve the problem.
A newly founded alliance of associations and unions has raised the alarm about serious problems in the rescue services. At its presentation in Berlin, the “Alliance for Rescue Services” complained about a lack of staff while the number of operations was increasing at the same time, which led to a high burden and bottlenecks in the emergency services. There is a “dramatic shortage of staff,” said Oliver Hölters, spokesman for Caritas employees, at the presentation.
The alliance warned of an “unprecedented career flight”. While there is a lack of personnel, the number of deployments continued to rise – in some places by up to 20 percent, said Frank Flake from the German Professional Association for Rescue Services (DBRD), who is also a member of the alliance. These are often “trivial operations” for which no rescue operation is actually necessary. “Many employees are frustrated because they didn’t choose this job to deal with these minor issues,” Flake said.
The alliance called for the rescue service to be recognized “as a relevant part of the health service”. The rescue service must also be given more consideration in legislative projects within emergency care. Hölters also called for a “training offensive” from politicians. More people would have to find access to the professions in the rescue service. A reduction in working hours can only be a short-term solution to relieve employees, he said. If you reduce the working hours of the existing staff, however, in the end even more employees would be missing.
Several associations and unions belong to the “Alliance for Rescue Services”. In addition to the employee side of the Labor Law Commission of the German Caritas Association and the DBRD, the Björn-Steiger-Foundation and the German Fire Brigade Union have also joined it.
Meanwhile, collective bargaining between the Verdi services union and the municipal employers entered the next round. Verdi wants to reduce working hours and agree on an upper limit for weekly working hours of 44 hours, as the union in Berlin announced. There should be a discussion with the local employers’ associations (VKA) on Monday.
“The excessively long working hours of up to 48 hours per week lead to high health risks for the employees and must finally be a thing of the past,” warned Sylvia Bühler, member of the Verdi national board. What is needed is an “entry into the exit from the no longer up-to-date maximum working time regulations”.
This is also important in order to keep the urgently needed staff in the profession. In addition to reducing working hours, the union reiterated its demand for health protection for emergency services workers to be expanded.
A Verdi spokeswoman said that the demand for a reduction in working hours still came from the 2020 collective bargaining round. A first conversation had already taken place at the beginning of the year. This will now be continued. According to the spokeswoman, the talks are “independent of collective bargaining” and therefore without the threat of a strike.
