The German Civil Service Federation (DBB) has cautioned that industrial action in schools could occur if the civil servant status of teachers were to be removed.
DBB federal chairman Volker Geyer highlighted that the civil servant status ensures schools remain free from strikes, responding to recent proposals from political figures and the Federation of Taxpayers to reduce the number of civil service positions in Germany.
Geyer questioned whether proponents of reducing civil servant numbers, referencing Carsten Linnemann and Holznagel specifically, were prepared to accept potential strikes in German schools. The Federation of Taxpayers has called for a review of the civil servant status, while CDU General Secretary Linnemann, citing the financial burden of public sector pensions, has also advocated for reducing the number of tenured civil servants.
Geyer criticized the repeated suggestions to remove civil servant status, particularly for professions like teaching, arguing that education is a fundamentally sovereign task. Moreover, he contends that removing civil servant status from specific professions would not yield cost savings for the state.
In fact, he explained, such a move would necessitate an immediate increase in gross salaries, employer contributions to pension insurance and provisions for supplementary pension schemes for teachers reclassified as employees. “Removing civil servant status does not solve a single problem related to pension insurance or public budgets; on the contrary, it would create many new ones. I can only strongly warn against this debate”.