Why tens of thousands of doctors in Germany may strike in January

The Marburger Bund union said it would hold a ballot on industrial action in the coming year following the breakdown.

"After five rounds of negotiations, the members of the municipal clinics are now to vote on whether extensive industrial action by doctors in the form of a full strike will take place in the new year," the Marburger Bund union said in a statement released on Saturday. 

The dispute is over shift work and pay for doctors working in hospitals. The union is calling for a reform of shift and rotating shift arrangements, an increase in salaries of 8.5 percent and financial improvements for on-call and standby work.

The union said the Association of Municipal Employers' Associations (VKA) "have shown no willingness to re-regulate the working conditions for shift work, although they had promised changes in the previous round of negotiations".

The Marburger Bund said it plans to announce the result of the ballot before Christmas.

In the most recent round of negotiations, employers are said to have offered a salary increase of 5.5 percent, an increase in the night bonus from 15 to 20 percent and a one-off payment of €500.

However, the union said the VKA's offer was "unacceptable".

The collective agreement in question applies to around 60,000 doctors in municipal hospitals nationwide, with the exception of the Vivantes clinics in Berlin and other clinics, mainly in eastern Germany, which have in-house collective agreements. Negotiations began in mid-June.

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