The Verdi union has called for a two-day strike beginning on the morning of Thursday, Sep 17 and scheduled to end after the late shift on Friday evening. The strike could disrupt operations in some wards. Charité will inform the affected patients.
The dispute between Verdi and the university hospital stems from Charité’s termination of the Relief Collective Agreement. This agreement, in effect since 2021, stipulates the maximum number of patients per nurse on individual wards.
If the number of patients per nurse goes beyond the quota, affected employees accumulate ‘burden points’, which can be converted into days off or financial compensation. According to Verdi, more than 1,000 additional nurses have joined the hospital since the agreement came into effect.
The financial pressure on Charité is considerable. According to its financial statement released in April, the hospital closed the previous year with a deficit of €63.6 million. In 2024, this figure was €87.4 million, and in 2023 it had reached €134.6 million. At the same time, the state of Berlin has imposed a comprehensive austerity programme, which particularly affects the state-owned hospital group in its role as a medical university.
Unlike in factories, a full-scale strike is not feasible in hospitals, as this would immediately endanger patients’ lives, especially in maximum-care facilities like Charité. Even during the two-day strike, acute cases will be treated as usual.
The emergency service agreement between Verdi and the hospital management is, in this case, significantly more comprehensive than the union would have liked. Earlier this year, Charité’s management successfully argued in labour court that more staff must be on duty than Verdi had proposed.
