As court spokesperson Sarah Dempke told the General-Anzeiger, the UKB considers the strike to be, among other things, an illegal violation of the peace obligation. The peace obligation is part of the current collective wage agreement, which was negotiated last year between Verdi and the Tarifgemeinschaft der Länder, the employers' association of the public sector.

In the strike, which has been going on since the beginning of May this year, the workers do not want to negotiate a new salary, however, but an additional collective agreement relief with the aim of defining binding and stricter staffing floors on the wards. The promise of practical training hours is also part of the collective bargaining demands.

Moreover, Dempke said, the UKB argued in its motion that the workers' demands were not justifiable because some of the collective bargaining objectives were not compatible with existing laws. From the university hospital's point of view, the continuation of the industrial action was "no longer justifiable from a medical point of view in the interest of the patients". The spokesperson assumes that due to the urgency, the labour court will immediately make a decision on Tuesday, which, according to the current state of affairs, will only affect the Bonn university hospital and not the other five university hospitals in NRW, which are also on strike.

The chairman of the board of the UKB, Wolfgang Holzgreve, confirmed the procedure: "We want to have a legal check if the strike should be stopped," said Holzgreve. He added that the question was whether the ever-growing list of patients with postponed operations was still justifiable for those affected and from a medical point of view. The board and Verdi have reached emergency service agreements to ensure that emergency cases continue to be cared for at Venusberg. However, certain operations are not to take place during the strike.

The upcoming negotiations prompted the trade union Verdi to move a demonstration planned for this Tuesday in Münster to Bonn without further ado. At around 10 a.m., nursing and specialist staff from all six North Rhine-Westphalia hospitals are scheduled to arrive at the Venusberg. The striking workers then want to march from there via Poppelsdorfer Platz into the city centre, as they have done so often in recent weeks. The Bonn police have announced that the demonstration, which is planned for 500 participants, may cause traffic disruptions. The final rally is planned for 2.30 pm on Münsterplatz.

Arno Appelhoff, union secretary of Verdi responsible for the Bonn UKB, expressed optimism on Monday that the Bonn labour court will rule in favour of Verdi. In August last year, the Berlin Labour Court ruled that the strike by nursing staff at the Charité and Vivantes hospitals there was unlawful. However, one of the court's main criticisms at the time was the lack of an emergency service agreement between the UKB and Verdi.

In Berlin, Verdi and the two Berlin hospitals were able to negotiate a relief collective agreement. A points system is to ensure that the nursing and specialist staff receive time off in lieu for violations of the relief agreement. Since there is a shortage of skilled workers in nursing, the impact on health care is hard to foresee.

Should the Bonn labour court find that the nursing strike is unlawful, Verdi would have to withdraw the strike call immediately, Dempke explained. However, depending on the outcome, both sides would be free to appeal the decision to the regional labour court.

The university clinics, the employees and Verdi have meanwhile entered into negotiations. At the end of last week, the clinics submitted a proposal for a collective agreement that Verdi rejected as „insufficient".

Original text: Philipp Königs

Translation: Mareike Graepel