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Berlin police officers on duty: Will soon receive 150 euros per month in the capital city allowance - but will they also benefit from it in the long term?
Photo: Paul Zinken / dpa
Hesse left the collective bargaining association of German states (TdL) of its own free will a few years ago, while Berlin is now threatened with an involuntary departure.
The general assembly of the public sector employers' association decided to expel the city-state from its association.
The background to the step is the so-called capital city allowance of 150 euros.
Starting next month, this should benefit all civil servants and employees of the city-state up to and including the pay groups A13 / E13, i.e. around 124,000 state employees.
In this way, Berlin wants to compensate for the higher cost of living for employees in the big city compared to land-based states - especially in terms of rent.
Exclusion not yet final
From the point of view of the TdL, however, this jeopardizes a uniform approach by the member states in tariff issues.
With the decision, the TdL "clearly showed the state of Berlin the yellow card," said the TdL chairman, Lower Saxony's Finance Minister Reinhold Hilbers (CDU).
"If Berlin does not comply with the agreed conditions, the yellow / red inevitably follows automatically."
At the beginning of September he told the broadcaster RBB: "It cannot be that we all do what we want.
The Berlin Senate Administration did not comment on the process.
Berlin's Senator for Finance Matthias Kollatz is considered an opponent of the capital allowance, but the SPD politician did not prevail in the Senate with his stance.
"Exclusion from the collective bargaining community of the federal states would be crap," said Kollatz in September, shortly after the Senate approved the allowance.
The state of Berlin could now have to conduct future collective bargaining for itself.
The exclusion of Berlin is not yet final.
It will only take effect in five years if the so-called capital city allowance should continue to be paid by then, as the TdL announced.
Until then, however, the state waives its right to vote: "This means that Berlin is still a member of the TdL for the time being, but can no longer actively participate in the resolutions of the TdL general meeting."
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apr / dpa
