As Childcare Crisis Deepens, Berlin Ruling Gives ver.di a Green Light for Bargaining Pressure

German labour court upholds daycare strike rights, rejecting Berlin Senate's challenge. ver.di wins on staffing demands amid wider retail strikes.

Berlin’s labour court has thrown out a legal challenge by the state government aimed at blocking strikes in municipal daycare centres, handing the ver.di union a clear victory. The ruling, issued on 29 May, affirms that the constitutional right to strike overrides objections from the Berlin Senate – and that the city’s membership in the Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder (TdL), the joint bargaining body for Germany’s federal states, does not preclude separate local negotiations.

At the heart of the dispute is ver.di’s push for a so-called Entlastungstarifvertrag – a relief tariff agreement that would set binding minimum staffing levels, provide compensation for overwork, and guarantee paid training time for educators in Berlin’s municipally owned nurseries. The court found all these demands to be legitimately negotiable under collective bargaining law, and also rejected the city’s argument that the existing peace obligation – which normally bans strikes while a contract is in force – applied in this case. The decision is a notable reversal, because the same court had previously issued temporary injunctions against the walkouts.

The legal breakthrough comes at a moment when Germany’s early?years education system is under severe strain. Just days later, on 3 June, Berlin’s education senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch unveiled a new language?support programme that will require mandatory screening tests for children from the age of two?and?a?half. The senator described it as a necessary quality boost, but the alliance “VielfaltVerankern” immediately pushed back, arguing that standardised tests cannot mask the chronic lack of quality and resources in the system.

Nationwide figures underscore the scale of the predicament. By the 2026/27 school year, primary?school children will gain a legal right to all?day care – yet 65,000 places are already missing. To meet demand by 2029/30, an average of 264,000 additional slots will be needed across the country, with the biggest shortfalls in North Rhine?Westphalia and Bavaria. Compounding the problem, the German Youth Institute (DJI) reports that 20% of current all?day?care staff lack any pedagogical training.

The daycare ruling is only one front in a broader wave of industrial action across Berlin and Brandenburg. In the retail sector, negotiations covering some 220,000 workers collapsed on 1 June. Employers proposed a staggered increase: six months of a wage freeze, followed by 2% and then 1.5% over a total 24?month period. ver.di is demanding 7% more pay, with a minimum monthly rise of €222, over a 12?month term. The union rejected the offer as inadequate, calling nationwide strikes on 4 and 5 June, with central rallies in Berlin and Bochum. Although the HDE retail association does not expect major disruption for customers, ver.di has threatened further walkouts. In Brandenburg, the peace obligation in retail expires on 30 June; the next round of talks is scheduled for 23 June.

The Berlin Senate now has the option to appeal the labour court’s daycare decision to the Landesarbeitsgericht (LAG) Berlin?Brandenburg. Whether it will take that step remains unclear.