Uni-Tübingen

Collective Agreement Issues

Information on current and long-term regulations regarding the application of collective bargaining regulations and agreements in the public sector is provided below. An important task of the staff council is to monitor compliance with collective bargaining regulations for the benefit of all colleagues employed on the basis of collective agreements. In the case of individual legal questions and problems, the staff council has only a general advisory role. Legal advice is provided by the trade unions GEW and ver.di and the Beamtenbund for civil servants. Legal advice at GEW and ver.di is open to all union members.

The Collective Agreement TV-L

Ver.di members can request the TV-L collective agreement as a hard copy from the trade union. A digital version of the contract can be found on the ver.di internal webpages. Simply register for access to the union’s membership website.

The collective agreement (Tarifvertrag) and the pay scale (Entgeltordnung, annex A of the TV-L) are also available on other websites, such as: https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/g/tv-l.

Entgelttabellen (pay scales)

Topics of Interest

Tariff Negotiation Results

Tariff agreement 2023

On December 9, 2023, the employers’ association TdL and the participating labor unions, with ver.di leading the negotiations, agreed on the following:

  • Under the collective agreement, state employees receive a tax and social security contribution-free inflation compensation payment of 3,000 euros:
    • A net amount of 1,800 euros will be paid for December 2023.
    • From January through October 2024, there will be monthly net payments of 120 euros each.
    • For those who have questions about individual claims in various contract constellations, we provide the following FAQ from ver.di’s collective bargaining secretariat: TS berichtet: TV Inflationsausgleich 2023 (in German only)
  • From November 1, 2024, employees’ incomes will increase by a fixed amount of 200 euros, reflected in the pay scale.
  • Part-time employees will receive the respective sums in proportion to their employment contract.
  • This will be followed by an additional pay rise of 5.5 percent from February 1, 2025. If this does not result in a pay rise of 340 euros, the amount of the rise is increased to 340 euros.
  • For the first time, hourly wages for student and academic assistants will be increased on the basis of a collective agreement, meaning they are now binding and the amount is fixed for the whole of Germany: Letter from the Ministry of Finance on the pay rise for student and academic assistants as of April 1, 2024​​​​​​​ (in German only)

The collective agreement will be in effect for 25 months until October 31, 2025. On average, the salaries of state employees will increase by over eleven percent during this period.

  • Students on dual study programs, trainees (Auszubildende) and interns will each receive an inflation compensation payment of 1,000 euros in December 2023 and 50 euros net per month from January to October 2024.
  • Trainee pay will increase by 100 euros from November 1, 2024 and by an additional 50 euros from February 1, 2025.
  • In addition, trainees earning a final grade of 3 or better will be offered an open-ended employment contract.

In the negotiations, it was agreed that civil servants would receive the same payments and pay rises. These talks were conducted at state level between the labor unions and the Ministry of Finance.

  • For technical reasons, civil servants in Baden-Württemberg will not receive the inflation compensation bonus until April, in the amount of 1,800 euros plus four times 120 euros for the months of December to April. This will be followed by 120 euros from May to October, resulting in a total of 3,000 euros.
  • There will be a linear increase in remuneration of 3.6 percent from November 2024 and 5.6 percent from February 2025.

Further information (in German only) on the negotiations concluded in December 2023 is available on the following websites:

Tariff agreement in the German federal states (TV-L) of November 2021

After difficult negotiations, an agreement was reached in Potsdam on November 29, 2021, with the following results:

  • Employees will receive a tax-free payment of 1,300 € by March 2022 (part-time employees will receive a proportional payment)
  • Trainees (Auszubildende), interns and student employees will receive 650 € tax-free at the same time
  • Salaries will increase by 2.8% as of December 1st, 2022
  • The regulations on hiring successful trainees will be reinstated
  • Trainee pay will increase by 50 € as of December 1st, 2022 (70 € in the health care sector)
  • Discussions on the working conditions of student employees at universities will be initiated

Although the TdL did not want to enter negotiations without reassessing the “Arbeitsvorgänge” (work tasks) on which the salary groups are based, the third round of negotiations did produce a result. Any change in the definition of the “Arbeitsvorgang” would have meant a deterioration in the salary group for many employees (for more information, see the article on the “Arbeitsvorgang” in personal.RAT 01/2021, pp. 14-15). This danger was averted in this round of collective bargaining.

The 1,300 € bonus payment provides a strong social component, especially for the lower salary groups. This helps compensate, at least in part, for inflation, including for other salary groups.

In the healthcare sector, further improvements in income and working conditions were successfully negotiated.
The tariff agreement is valid for 24 months (until September 30, 2023).

Further information (in German only) on the negotiations concluded in Autumn 2021 is available on the following websites:
https://unverzichtbar.verdi.de 
https://www.gew.de/tv-l/ 
https://www.dbb.de/einkommensrunde/einkommensrunde-2021.html
https://www.tdl-online.de/startseite.html 

Tariff agreement in the German federal states of March 2019 (TV-L)

After tough negotiations, a tariff agreement was reached in Potsdam in March 2019.

The salary increases:

  1. Linear increase as of January 1st, 2019 by 3.01%, min. 100 € (total volume: 3.2%)
  2. Linear increase as of January 1st, 2020 by 3.12%, min. 90 € (total volume: 3.2%)
  3. Linear increase as of January 1st, 2021 by 1.29%, min. 50 € (total volume: 1.4%)

The “total volume” is the result of the fact that the figures in tier 1 of salary groups 2-15 are increased
by 4.5% as of January 1, 2019,
by 4.3% as of January 1, 2020, and
by 1.8% as of January 1, 2021.

For trainees (Auszubildende), the agreement is: an increase

  1. of a fixed amount of 50 € as of January 1, 2019,
  2. a further fixed amount of 50 € as of January 1, 2020,
  3. and an additional day of vacation, i.e., 30 days total.

At the same time, an increase in family allowances and wage supplements according to the old MTL for workers was also agreed upon.

The structural improvements to the payment regulations (Entgeltordnung) include the following: The equalization of the “small E 9” into an E 9 a with equal tier durations (Stufenlaufzeiten) as all other salary groups and adjusted amounts for the tiers of the table. A further improvement in the framework agreement on employment conditions is the guarantee amounts for changes to a higher salary group with retroactive effect from January 1, 2019:

  1. In salary groups 1-8 it is 100 € (previously: 25 €)
  2. In salary groups 9-15 it is 180 € (previously: 50 €)

The cost of the improvements was calculated at 1.06 percent, and the unions did not agree to the demands for total compensation. It was agreed that half of the amount, 0.5 percent, would be financed not via the salary increase, but by “freezing” the annual bonus:

The annual bonus pursuant to § 20 TV-L will be frozen at the level of 2018 for the years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Updated: 05/2020