Collective bargaining negotiations interrupted

Tariff committee of the German Stage Association demands unreasonable conditions for working time regulations

Artists' unions see no basis for negotiations.

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Berlin, April 26, 2023 - After intensive and initially constructive collective bargaining negotiations, the German Stage Association, as the employer's representative, reversed progress already made in negotiations in the last round on April 25.

The collective agreement "Normalvertrag Bühne" (NV-Bühne) still does not regulate any limitation of working hours for large parts of the artistic staff at German theaters. The collective bargaining parties on both sides had set out to end this untenable situation. In the current collective bargaining negotiations, the artists' unions BFFS, GDBA and VdO are concerned, among other things, with the ability to plan working hours and protection against overwork.

Since October 2022, the collective bargaining parties had been moving towards each other and working together on a new working time model that would meet theater practice - a model that would ensure both the protection of employees from overwork and the flexibility of the artistic production process.

In the last round of negotiations, however, the German Stage Association surprisingly confronted the employee side with new conditions, including

• Tariff of 10 hours of working time per day
• Enabling weekly working time of up to 60 hours over several months
• No timely compensation for these workloads

On this basis, the artists' unions have been forced to suspend the two-day negotiations. Lisa Jopt, Executive President of GDBA "This is a slap in the face for thousands of members who suffer from overwork and a lack of predictability in everyday theater life. Therefore, we cannot accept such absurd ideas as a serious basis for discussion. "Gerrit Wedel, Deputy Managing Director VdO "This issue has been moving us for years! This backward roll of the German Stage Association comes as a complete surprise to us trade unions and means a deterioration compared to the status quo - this cannot be taken seriously. "Bernhard F. Störkmann, Managing Legal Advisor of the BFFS "We are very disappointed about this step backwards in the negotiations, but we do not want to give up hope and call on the German Stage Association to continue the talks with constructive negotiation proposals for fair working time regulations. "The unions will now discuss the extent to which they will lend weight to their demands through suitable measures.