Another three-day warning strike announced at MHH

Emergencies are treated. Court clarification to avert further significant restrictions to the care mandate.

Despite the ongoing negotiations on measures to relieve the burden on employees at Hannover Medical School (MHH), the trade union Verdi has called on its members to go on a three-day warning strike next week. The strike will run from Wednesday, 16 October 2024, up to and including Friday, 18 October 2024.

It goes without saying that emergencies will also be treated adequately on strike days. To this end, MHH has concluded an emergency service agreement with Verdi. However, there could again be considerable restrictions in everyday hospital life on the strike days. This particularly affects planned operations, planned inpatient admissions and outpatient treatments.

In order to avert longer restrictions in the operating theatres, on the wards and in the outpatient clinics and their consequences, the legality of the strike that has now been announced is to be clarified in court. During a three-day warning strike in September, hundreds of operations and treatments had to be postponed or cancelled. A planned three-day industrial action, which Verdi had planned in August, was prohibited by the Hanover Labour Court.

Minister expects agreement in the coming week

'MHH, the state of Lower Saxony and Verdi are in constructive and trusting talks. We hope that we will successfully conclude these in the coming week. We believe that an agreement is achievable,' says Lower Saxony's Minister of Science, Falko Mohrs. 'Against this backdrop, I very much regret that Verdi has announced another strike for next week. We consider this strike to be unlawful and have therefore decided to take legal action. This step was not easy for us, as we are in good talks and wanted to avoid the strike by other means. We did not succeed in doing so. Neither the strike notice nor its clarification in court should stand in the way of further intensive talks.'

'Our common goal is still to achieve prompt relief for MHH employees,' explains MHH President Professor Dr Michael Manns. 'How we can achieve this relief is currently the subject of confidential negotiations between the state of Lower Saxony, MHH and Verdi. The current announcement of strikes lasting several days is not a confidence-building measure. Furthermore, we do not consider a strike to be lawful.'

'We assumed that we would have found a common basis for the ongoing talks,' added MHH Vice President Martina Saurin. 'The new strike announcement calls into question what we have achieved so far in the negotiations. I am therefore very disappointed. Nevertheless, we continue to offer to work constructively on an agreement that is acceptable to MHH employees. We have already offered far-reaching concessions, despite the high financial burdens that will result. However, the outcome of the negotiations must also be in the interests of our patients.'

Text: Inka Burow