Doctors' strike in Germany in 2006

During the doctors' strike in 2006 , doctors employed at German university clinics and municipal hospitals stopped work in order to demonstrate against what they saw as unacceptable working conditions and for better pay. It was the first doctors' strike in Germany for over thirty years and the first ever strike by employed doctors . During the negotiations, the Marburger Bund doctors' association broke off with the ver.di union , which represents non-medical hospital employees.

More than 5000 medical professionals traveled to Münster for a large demonstration on May 16, 2006 . In the week after June 5th, hundreds of beds at various university hospitals, some of them entire wards, were closed. The doctors' strike reached its climax on June 16, 2006 with the nationwide stoppage of work by over 13,800 doctors in 41 university clinics and state hospitals. A large part of the total of 22,000 university physicians thus went on strike.

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Since 2003, at the urging of CDU-led state governments, the public employers of the federal states have been working towards dissolving the public service collective bargaining system. The federal states increased working hours to up to 42 hours per week without wage compensation and with reduced special payments. The reduction in income for newly hired doctors at the university clinics was between 15 and 20%. In addition, many clinics refused the overtime pay provided for in the old collective agreement. Finally, the doctors called for the implementation of the European Directive 2003/88 / EC on certain aspects of the organization of working hours of the Council of the European Union of June 22, 2000 on the maximum working hours.

At the beginning of 2005, a thesis paper was published by the doctors at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg with the demands that were later adopted by the Marburger Bund in collective bargaining with the collective bargaining association of German states; the increases in working hours and reductions in Christmas and vacation pay should be reversed and, on the contrary, doctor salaries should be increased by 30 percent; the above Working time policy implemented and overtime paid in full. (The average working time of a doctor at a German clinic was about 46.3 hours / week).

The increasing dissatisfaction of the doctors with ver.di led to the dissolution of the representation mandate of the Marburger Bund for ver.di in September 2005 and to the withdrawal of the Marburger Bund from the common collective bargaining with the aim to conduct them independently. In a short time the membership of the Marburger Bund grew to 105,000 members.

University hospitals

On March 1, 2006, the Marburger Bund called a full strike after negotiations on a collective agreement for doctors at university clinics were broken off without result. First of all, work was stopped two days a week nationwide; Once a week, 5,000 to 11,000 doctors met for rallies across Germany. From May 8, 2006, the university physicians in all of Baden-Württemberg stopped work, and from May 15, 2006, locations all over Germany followed. The care of medical emergencies was secured by an emergency medical service.

Strike action in Heidelberg (aerial view)

In order to make their demand for a first independent medical collective agreement express and be heard in public, the Marburger Bund developed the demand for 30% more salary after internal discussion. The chairman of the collective bargaining association of German states (TdL), Lower Saxony's finance minister Hartmut Möllring , initially categorically rejected collective bargaining, but after the first strikes at the university clinics in Baden-Württemberg, he had to bow to political pressure from the federal states and, at the end of 2005, officially entered into independent collective bargaining with the Marburger Bund enter. The TdL rejected the demand for 30% more salary. The actual merits of German doctors are significantly better than claimed. Attempts to mediate failed. On May 24, doctors took a week's strike break to allow postponed medical treatment.

Möllring meanwhile relied increasingly on a collective agreement with the ver.di union for the other employees of the clinics; he and ver.di announced this agreement on May 19, 2006. Möllring added that the collective agreement also applies to hospital doctors - although the Marburger Bund did not negotiate, but since ver.di is clearly the larger union, the collective bargaining authority lies here; Negotiations with the Marburger Bund are therefore no longer planned.

In the general assemblies of doctors at university clinics held nationwide on May 19, 2006, however, further open-ended strikes from May 29, 2006 were decided. In June, transportable patients from the university hospitals in Heidelberg , Freiburg, and Ulm were relocated. On June 13, 13,500 doctors went on strike at 25 university clinics and 16 state hospitals .

After many rounds of negotiations since the end of 2005, the Marburger Bund and the collective bargaining association of German states agreed on a collective agreement for doctors on June 16, 2006 . This was the first doctor-specific and independent collective agreement with the TdL at all.

There were salary increases of up to 20 percent, particularly for young professionals and interns , but also for senior physicians who are collectively remunerated . In addition, this first doctor-specific collective agreement in the Federal Republic of Germany contains other essential doctor-specific regulations on working hours, remuneration and regulations on specialist training. In the ballot, 86 percent of doctors at university hospitals accepted this qualification.

Municipal hospitals

After the partial success at the state-owned clinics and several weeks of negotiations with the association of municipal employers' associations , the Marburger Bund called on its members on June 20, 2006 to hold a ballot in the municipal sector as well . 97% of the doctors affected voted for strikes. From June 26th, 7,500 doctors in four federal states stopped work. On June 28, the work of over 10,000 doctors in six countries was suspended, and on the following day 11,500 doctors in eight federal states went on strike.

Some municipal hospitals applied to the labor courts for interim orders ; the labor courts of Kiel (AZ: 1 Ga 11b / 06 of June 30, 2006) and Fulda (AZ: 1 Ga 4/06 of July 5, 2006) dismissed them.

On August 1st, the VKA agreed with ver.di and dbb-tarifunion on a standard tariff for the hospital sector. After that, remuneration for on- call services and training fees should be increased. Income increases for hospital doctors result only from an increase in working hours from 38.5 to 40.0 hours per week. As expected, the negotiations were not recognized by the doctors and the strikes continued.

In a “marathon meeting” on August 17th, the parties to the collective bargaining agreement agree to conclude a collective agreement. After that, the working hours were extended from 38.5 to 40.0 hours per week and income improvements of 10 to 13 percent were envisaged compared to the collective agreement for the public service . Income in eastern Germany initially remained at 95.5 percent, but should rise to 97 percent on July 1, 2007. The assessment rates for on-call duty corresponded to those of the Ver.di collective agreement of August 1, 2006.