Catherwood LibraryILR School

2.9 million German public sector workers represented by the Verdi trade union may soon hold a strike vote, as representatives of the union are set to decide today whether to ballot members on industrial action, or accept a non-binding arbitration proposal as the basis of further negotiations. Talks between Verdi and government agencies broke down in late December, and an arbitration board with two independent arbitrators was appointed to work towards a compromise proposal. The dispute is centered on raises, with government employers still seeking low raises after abandoning their earlier insistence on pay freezes, and the union seeming to have compromised on a split raise but continuing to call for an increase of at least three percent to compensate for low raises in recent years.