Rain for KDL employees: After 40 days of strike, finally a collective agreement!

Rain for KDL employees: After 40 days of strike, finally a collective agreement!

Regensburg, Deutschland - In Regensburg there were recently significant progress in the collective bargaining for the employees of the KDL service company, which belongs to the University Clinic Regensburg. After almost four months of conflicts and an intensive strike of 40 days, unions and employers have now agreed on a new house collective agreement, which promises a significant increase in salary to the approximately 300 service employees.

The ver.di union secretary describes this success as "reference with charisma". The negotiated contract stipulates that the employees receive significant salary increases by 2027, which represents a big step towards equality of payments to their colleagues who are employed directly at the university clinic.

significant improvements for the KDL employees

The new house collective agreement creates a complete equality of pay to the federal states and improves the grouping for all activities, not just for specialists. In addition, the weekly working hours are reduced and a doubling of the annual special payment to 2,000 euros is made possible.

So far, the working conditions of the KDL employees have been anything but rosy. They earned only 13.50 euros gross an hour, which corresponded to the statutory minimum wage. This unequal treatment already led to the first protests in 2021 and was the trigger for the intensive negotiations, which finally led to this agreement. A full -time employee with ten years of professional experience will now be able to get into a new fee from just more than 2,000 euros gross to almost 2,900 euros.

The KDL, which was founded in 2006, belongs to 51 percent of the University Hospital Regensburg and 49 percent of a cleaning company. The employees are responsible, among other things, for cleaning operating theaters, laundry supply and patient accompanying service. Despite their important role in the clinic, they were financially disadvantaged for a long time.

from strike to agreement

The intensity of the strike, which began in May, finally led to intolerable hygienic conditions, which the health department called on the scene and ultimately accelerated the negotiations. The Situation was so tense that the clinic management threatened with a police operation against the strikers, which further increased the frustration with the employees.

In addition to the future improvements in salary, there is still a little uncertainty. The collective agreement must still be approved by the ver.di members, and the signature of the employer side is still pending. However, experts expect the final agreement to be completed by the end of October.

Negotiations in Regensburg could also have an impact on similar facilities in Bavaria. At other university clinics, such as Erlangen, Würzburg and Munich, there is currently no collective agreement, although they have similar structures as KDL in Regensburg. The union secretary describes the agreement as a "lighthouse" and hopes that it serves as a model for other clinics.

An extensive analysis of the financial situation also shows that the cleaning mogul Götz, who acts as a minority shareholder of the KDL, has been paid in the past high management flat rates that exceeded a sum of up to 750,000 euros in many years. This injustice repeatedly encountered internal criticism, especially from the Supreme Bavarian Court of Auditors

Overall, this conflict of tariff shows the challenges that the employees in the healthcare system face, and the need for fair working conditions for everyone. The progress in Regensburg could be an important step for similar negotiations at other locations in the future. target = "_ blank" rel = "nofollow noopener noreferer"> For more information on this topic see the current reporting on www.merkur.de .