The German union Verdi on Tuesday called on the German government to ensure that the salaries of some 12,000 civilian employees of the US armed forces in Germany are well paid, despite the budget “shutdown” (paralysis) in the United States.
The US embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to AFP requests.
Since October 1, part of the US federal administration has been paralyzed and hundreds of thousands of officials are technically unemployed.
According to Verdi, this budget paralysis now threatens employees in Germany at the US bases in Ramstein and Kaiserslautern in Rhineland-Palatinate, Oberpfalz in Bavaria, Wiesbaden in Hesse and Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg.
These civilian employees have activities in sectors such as logistics, catering, health, security or firefighting.
According to the Verdi services union, the United States has not yet validated the credits necessary for the payment of salaries since October 1, as provided for in the monthly procedure.
In the past, these civilian employees, paid according to the collective agreement governing the armed forces stationed in Germany, “had been excluded from the effects of a closure and continued to receive their salaries,” recalls the Federal Ministry of Finance.
It is up to this administration to calculate the salaries of the employees, while the Ministry of the Interior of the Rhineland-Palatinate region is in charge of transfers, once the salary has been validated by the American authorities.
The Ministry of the Interior “maintains a permanent exchange with the US armed forces” on this issue, a spokesperson told AFP.
These employees “are entitled to their salary,” insisted the vice president of the Verdi union, Christine Behle, who regrets that “the current American administration (…) no longer seems to want to respect German law” in relation to the NATO status of forces.
Verdi therefore calls on Berlin to guarantee the payment of salaries if the stagnation continues.
Source: BFM TV
