Higher personnel expenses: Municipalities in the Weilheim-Schongau district are still relaxed about the collective agreement

Financially, the municipalities are facing hard times: Less income from Corona, now the agreement in the collective bargaining agreement, which results in additional costs in personnel expenses.

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The collective bargaining agreement for public service employees cannot throw the municipalities off track despite the financial holes owed by Corona.

There will be 1.4 percent more in April 2021, a further 1.8 percent in April 2022. For the employees of the district town of Weilheim that amounts to 132,000 euros and another 172,000 euros in additional costs - a good 300,000 euros in the next two years.

In addition, there is a Corona special payment of 400 euros per employee this year.

“That's another 100,000 euros,” calculates the head of the office, Karin Groß.

Sure, “in such a tight budget situation, every extra expense hurts,” she admits.

With this additional expenditure, however, one is happy for the colleagues.

Especially since the city of Weilheim always plans a buffer for personnel costs anyway.

In this case, it cushions the special corona payment.

"The tariff agreement does not make us sway," said Groß.

The coming years will be a challenge

The personnel costs of the city of Schongau currently amount to around 7.7 million euros.

With the agreed collective bargaining increase of 1.4 percent for employees covered by collective agreements this year, personnel costs will rise by around 110,000 euros.

Compared to the wage increases in recent years - an average of 3.19 percent in 2018 and 3.09 percent in 2019 and 1.06 percent in 2020 - the collective bargaining agreement represents a moderate increase, according to Bettina Schade, head of the city’s office Schongau.

“In the city's 2020 budget, we have planned the future financial planning years with a collective wage increase of 2.5 percent.

This means that the personnel cost estimates for the years 2021 can be reduced accordingly. ”In view of the difficult economic situation and the currently unforeseeable tax shortfalls,“ the coming years will nevertheless be a challenge ”.

"It's not as if we don't allow our employees the money, on the contrary."

The agreement in the collective bargaining dispute of the public service means for Peiting an additional burden of around a quarter of a million euros in salary costs and around 60,000 euros in Corona one-off payments, calculates Mayor Peter Ostenrieder.

“We take both of them positively and we stand behind them.

It's not that we don't give our employees the money, on the contrary. "

In fact, the municipality often feels “gagged by the collective agreement for the public service, for example when it comes to comparable activities in the private sector.

So it is only fair if a collective agreement also reduces the financial gap between the two somewhat ”.

Peißenberg's mayor advocates that performance is fairly rewarded

The staggering of the one-off payments according to salary groups is also an important factor.

In the medium term, the public service has to get closer to the structure of “free life”, “otherwise it will become more and more difficult to find really good people for this important and demanding task”.

The well-deserved salary increase is also clearly noticeable in a municipality like Peißenberg: Mayor Frank Zellner speaks of a “six-figure amount” in terms of additional expenditure on personnel costs for the municipality's employees.

He and his chamberlain did a big jump.

It should then be 100,000 to 200,000 euros.

"That is a lot of money - especially with the forecast shortfall in income due to Corona." The amount is not a burden for the community of Peißenberg, but a challenge, no question.

In the same breath, he speaks of how important it is that performance is fairly rewarded - and thus strikes the same tone as his mayor colleagues.

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