Charité nurses called out on strike today and tomorrow in dispute over staffing agreement

Nurses at Berlin's Charité university hospital are due to strike today and Friday. The Verdi union has called a warning strike covering early, late and night shifts on Thursday and Friday at the Virchow-Klinikum, Campus Mitte and Campus Benjamin Franklin in Steglitz. Around 7,000 nurses work at the Charité, according to the hospital. A three-day warning strike already took place in early September.

The dispute centres on a 2021 relief agreement that sets staffing ratios and compensation for work on understaffed shifts. The Charité terminated it effective 31 August; Verdi wants to keep and expand it. A member of Verdi's bargaining committee said the aim was not to collect as many days off as possible. Charité spokesperson Markus Heggen said the hospital was doing everything to ensure patient care.

According to dpa, the hospital won full backing from the Berlin-Brandenburg state labour court for its requested emergency staffing; Verdi appealed, and the hearing was still under way on Wednesday afternoon. Pressure is also building from doctors: the Marburger Bund union began a two-week poll of its Charité members on possible industrial action on Wednesday, with results due on 3 November, after five bargaining rounds ended without agreement.