EFFORTS to end a wave of strikes in Germany's public sector took a step forward yesterday when an arbitrator held preliminary talks with employers and trade union representatives.
Mr Carl Ludwig Wagner, a former Christian Democrat politician, was asked to arbitrate last week after public service workers rejected the government's offer of a per cent pay rise as derisory.
Hundreds of thousands of German workers have staged token, strikes during the past two weeks, closing hospitals and schools and paralysing public transport systems in the major cities. All strikes are banned during the three week arbitration process but trade union leaders have warned they cannot prevent spontaneous walkouts by some of Germany's three million public service workers.
The pay dispute is a direct result of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's need to cut DM50 billion from the federal budget if Germany is to qualify for membership of a single European currency in 1999.
Trade unions and the opposition Social Democrats argue the cutbacks target the weak and reward the well off. The Social Democrats enjoy a majority in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, and they have promised to block a number of the measures, including a controversial plan to cut statutory sick pay for workers.
The unions have accused Dr Kohl of endangering Germany's post war social consensus and of trampling over 40 years of progress in improving the lot of workers.
The government package would reduce sick pay from 100 per cent of an employee's salary to 80 per cent, as well as cutting some pensions and raising the retirement age for women from 60 to 65. Germany's generous social welfare system, which even entitles workers to a free three week stay at a spa resort, is the envy of many of its European neighbours.
