Doctors strike for better pay in Germany

MUNICH – Doctors at municipal hospitals across Germany embarked on strike on Tuesday in support of demands for higher pay and improved working conditions.

In Hamburg, around 2,000 doctors marched through the city centre holding placards reading “Good work – good pay” and “Overworked – underpaid.”

The strike targeted public hospitals in seven of Germany’s 16 states and private hospitals as well in an eighth.

Emergency care was unaffected by the strike.

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The Marburger Bund medical trade union is demanding compensation for inflation since the last pay rise in the autumn of 2021 plus a 2.5% pay increase for 55,000 hospital doctors.

It has called further strikes in other states for March 30.

The VKA employers’ association said the demands for inflation compensation and a pay increase were unreasonable.

“Taken together, they result in a demand of almost 12%, which is unaffordable for municipal hospitals,” VKA lead negotiator Wolfgang Heyl said.