Update: As of October 11, Berlin-Brandenburg Labour Court has ruled that an indefinite strike by employees at Berlin Kitas would violate a "duty of peace". The indefinite strike will cease but ver.di demands remain the same and warning strikes (Warnstreiks) are allowed to continue. In the event of a Warnstreik parents will still have to find childcare at short notice. Check below for more information about parents' employment rights and childcare obligations.

Thousands of families in Berlin must look for emergency childcare next week as employees at 10 percent of Kitas in the city begin an unlimited strike. Here’s everything parents need to know about the planned industrial action.

7.000 Berlin Kita workers to begin strike from September 30

On Monday morning, 7.000 childcare workers in Berlin will go out on strike, around 35.000 children and 10 percent of the city’s 2.900 Kitas will be closed.

The strike action means that parents with children at affected Kitas will have to organise emergency childcare on Monday and into the foreseeable future, as the industrial action is unlimited.

Why are Berlin childcare workers going on strike?

With the strike action, ver.di and the GEW - Germany’s trade union for education - are demanding that the Berlin Senate introduce binding regulations to reduce the overworking in Berlin Kitas.

In an investigation published by CORRECTIV in November 2023, Berlin Kita workers spoke of regular scenarios endangering children, including three employees stretched between 53 children, without having any time to take a break or go to the toilet. 

“You are constantly afraid of doing something wrong because you are so overworked,” one interviewee told the investigation, while others spoke of “daily chaos” and “coming home and bursting into tears”.

Kitas in Berlin and nationwide are some of the worst affected sectors in a country which is facing a record-high worker shortage. However, with the Kita working conditions looking increasingly unappealing, childcare centres are also struggling to keep the new employees they do find.

The decision to hold an indefinite strike comes after multiple day-long strikes before the summer, which ver.di says “gave those politically responsible plenty of time to avoid the resulting escalation”.

As the indefinite strike begins, ver.di is floating the idea that Berlin introduce the “Kiel Model”, a relief agreement between unions and state-owned childcare facilities. 

Under the Kieler Modell the state as the employer enters a contract with a union to agree that minimum staffing requirements are met, if these requirements are not met, employees on duty are entitled to extra paid holiday. If the Kieler Modell were adopted, the right to strike would not apply, since the agreement would not have the same status as a collective bargaining agreement.

What rights do you have as a parent when Kita workers are striking?

According to the German Civil Code (Bürgerliche Gesetzbuch), small children cannot be left unattended. When a childcare strike is announced suddenly - for example, the night before the action begins -  and children cannot be cared for at a Kita or school, parents are permitted to stay home and care for their children. Employers must continue to pay the affected parents’ wages as normal.

However, since ver.di announced the strike several days in advance, parents are considered to have had a reasonable amount of time to organise alternative childcare. If employed parents still cannot find an alternative, parents must request holiday leave. 

If they have used their holiday leave, they are allowed to take unpaid holiday leave, which the employer can only reject if there is nobody else who can do the job. Alternatively, parents can request to take back overworked hours or move their working hours to afternoons or evenings.

Employers are not obliged to but may also allow parents to take their children to work in such circumstances, but only if there is a safe place where the child can be while the parent is working.

In any case, parents should not insincerely call in sick to look after children, since doing so risks an official warning or dismissal. Otherwise, it is illegal to dismiss an employee because they cannot come to work due to a Kita strike, if they can prove that they cannot find alternative childcare.

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