Start of negotiations to adjust NV-Bühne salaries to the TV-L agreement

Joint press release

BFFS, GDBA, VdO and unisono reach agreement with the German Stage Association on the payment of an inflation compensation premium at the first negotiation meeting

Berlin/Hamburg/Cologne, December 20, 2023 - The artists' unions unisono, GDBA, BFFS and VdO began collective bargaining yesterday with the German Stage Association to adopt the collective agreement for public sector employees in the federal states in the NV-Bühne.

At the first negotiation meeting, an initial agreement was reached on the payment of a tax and duty-free inflation compensation bonus totaling EUR 3,000 for permanent stage employees. This is divided into a one-off payment of EUR 1,800 for December 2023 and then monthly payments of EUR 120 from January to October 2024.

The Bühnenverein has rejected the trade unions' demand to pay a corresponding inflation adjustment to guest artists as well - as was already the case in the TVöD pay scale.

No agreement has yet been reached on the full implementation of the wage increases agreed in the TV-L sector for NV-Bühne employees. The German Stage Association has rejected the unions' demand to fully implement the dynamic increase in entry-level and minimum pay that was only agreed in the collective agreement in August 2022. Negotiations on this will continue in January 2024.

Gerrit Wedel, Deputy Managing Director of VdO
"Today's agreement on an inflation compensation payment for colleagues working in NV stage companies that apply the TV-L is an important first signal. Now it is important to quickly reach a corresponding collective agreement in January with a view to the further TV-L results for our artists in the NV stage sector."

Lisa Jopt, Executive President of GDBA
"We expect the German Stage Association to respond to our demand for the full adoption of the TV-L result for entry-level and minimum pay. Because it is precisely in this pay sector that colleagues are dependent on a noticeable improvement in pay levels."

Heinrich Schafmeister, authorized representative of the BFFS board
"Guest artists must also be urgently taken into account when adjusting and adopting the TV-L agreements. The refusal of the German Stage Association to grant guest artists a noticeable improvement here, and ultimately for formal reasons, is incomprehensible."

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