Nurses in Germany should benefit from better pay in the future. For this purpose, the Bundestag has passed a law by Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD). Higher wages should therefore be achieved through a collective agreement between employers and employees. Heil wants as soon as the negotiations are concluded, a corresponding collective agreement then generally binding.
If there is no agreement, there should be higher minimum wages through a legal ordinance based on recommendations of the Nursing Commission. In the future, the Nursing Commission will be appointed as a permanent body with a term of office that is generally five years.
For the first time, the union Ver.di and the new Confederation of Employers in the Nursing Industry (BVAP), which include institutions of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt and Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, want to conclude a collective agreement for the care of the elderly. The private nursing employers had sharply criticized the project in advance. In their view, the BVAP is too small to speak for the entire industry.
The employers' association bpa speaks of a law that would scare off investors and private capital from the care market. So slid Germany "with an eye directly into the nursing emergency," said the bpa president and former Minister of Economic Affairs Rainer Brüderle.