This year's staff meeting was very well-attended, with a record-breaking turnout of ca. 600 employees. We would like to thank you once again for your participation as well as for taking part in our survey with the aim of topic selection.

Due to the change in scheduling of the annual meeting from winter to summer, the reporting period was rather short this time. Therefore we opted for not focusing on a specific topic in advance (which is the usual procedure) but rather let the employees meet this decision.

These were your topics and the topics of the executive board:

Benefits (institutional bike leasing, canteen prices, job ticket, Hansefit): no committments for improvements for employees could be achieved.

Car park management/parking space management: it turned out that many related issues have not been clarified on the part of the executive board yet. It remains unclear whether parking spaces for employees will be subject to charge in future. The executive board committed to involving the employees in further considerations related to the car park management, ensuring that their concerns will be taken into account. There was much related feedback from students, including questions addressing climate protection management.

More flexible handling of pay group allocation and categorization: according to the executive board, there are working groups in the ministries in which "performance-related groupings are to be examined". The executive board hands is unable to do much in this regard because it has to adhere to the collective agreements. The Vice President for Administration noted that there will be the possibility to negotiate one's salary classification for those who have an external job offer. A call on employees to engage in the upcoming collective wage negotiations followed.

Time recording for academic staff (WM): In 2022, the Federal Labour Court followed the European Court of Justice's 2019 as to the necessity for the implementation of time recording ("... the entire working time of employees must be recorded. ..."). This also applies to academic staff. Despite the fact that this law is in force, the executive board of the university pointed out that there are still no related federal or state regulations and that therefore there is no urge or possibility to act.

Workload due to the University of Excellence: The colleagues involved were repeatedly praised - the team spirit had enabled many things to come true. Furthermore, there will be attempts to improve the state of affairs in the domain of employment.

Reporting office ("Whistleblower Act") and anti-discrimination office: the former office is currently being set up and a gateway will be launched in the beginning of 2026. By then, the internal audit department will act as a mailbox. In addition, the anti-discrimination office is currently being set up. Existing departments such as the threat management and "conTakt" (for cases of sexual assault) remain independent and will be retained.

According to information provided by the labor unions ver.di and GEW on the upcoming collective wage negotiations, the following points have been raised in the final round of questions from employees:

Time recording for academic staff (WM): overload and emotional exhaustion were not considered. Answer: There is no related legal framework in the Labor Protection Act yet.

Consequences of the last employee survey: there were no indications for structural changes, in particular regarding overload. According to the executive board, teaching cannot be the reason for overload according to the regulations on teaching obligations (LVVO).

Transition of temporary to permanent positions within the IT department: a conversion of this kind is only possible if paid by the state. Generally, additional work can be claimed but such claims are not always successful.

Dissatisfaction: persistent problems keep being readdressed but no action is being taken - there is a strong desire for responses from the executive board.

Last but not least, we will post the questions that remained open at the staff meeting or reached us thereafter and their answers on our website. The slides from the staff meeting are available here.