A better staff ratio and better overall working conditions: With this offer, the employers convinced the Verdi union to end the hospital strike in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The longest labor dispute in the North Rhine-Westphalian health care system is over. On Tuesday, the Verdi collective bargaining committee accepted a key issue paper that had been negotiated with the employers the night before and that is to be implemented gradually from January 1, 2023, as announced by the union and employer. The strikes will end on Wednesday. The key issues paper envisages numerous improvements in working conditions.
Central points of the agreement are a better staff ratio, especially in patient-related professional groups, a shift-specific load measurement through days off or financial compensation and relief days when the new staff ratio is not reached.
Eleven-week clinic strike in North Rhine-Westphalia
The strike had lasted more than eleven weeks. The trade union Verdi wanted to use the industrial action to achieve noticeable improvements, especially in the chronically understaffed care sector, but also in other areas of the clinic. Well over 10,000 operations have had to be postponed since the beginning of May due to a shortage of staff at the six clinics. A large number of corona sufferers exacerbated the situation.
