Germany

In parallel with Fresenius’ annual general meetings of shareholders, trade unions will launch the Fresenius Global Union Alliance on 16 and 17 May in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. Unions demand that the healthcare giant negotiates a Global Agreement to secure workers' rights in all its operations.

Carmen Laue and Heike Schmidt were reinstated as employees of the social care company Celenus, by a ruling of the Labour Court in Nordhausen in central Germany, on 17 October, 2018. The two union activists are members of Ver.di, a leading affiliate of PSI and the European Public Service Unions (EPSU).

Public sector workers you will receive an average of 7.5 percent more over a 30-month period and will be retroactive from March 1st 2018.

There have been strikes in a total of eleven Länder and in nearly all federal and municipal public service sectors and institutions. On Friday 13 April too, work stoppages are taking place in many public service sectors and institutions.

Germany has placed health in the centre of discussion during several international meetings. It will also be addressed at the G20 summit in Hamburg in July.

A step further towards safe and effective staffing for health was taken in Germany, in the first week of March. The Federal Ministry of Health's expert committee on hospital nursing staff issued a report stating that quality of patient care is impacted by staffing levels, and called for binding minimal nursing staff levels to ensure safe and effective hospital care.

Ver.di President Frank Bsirske’s conclusion, after the 2nd round of collective negotiations with the “Bargaining Union of German Länder”, is sobering: "We are far from a breakthrough. We have to add some dynamics to the negotiations through warning strikes". In the coming days, work stops are to be expected.