German second-class teachers are on strike

Did you blink at the term second-class?

Native Germans, or Bio-Germans in modern colloquial, would hate us for the term, but there is a perfect reason.

Teachers at German public schools (which are state schools, and not private as in the UK) come in two classes.

The first-class transmitters of knowledge and wisdom are something like tenured for life civil servants. They form part of the old feudal remnant called "Beamte". The kind of job security enjoyed by these folks is mind boggling. The only way to get fired is to become a criminal sentenced to more than one year in prison. Probation does not make to eligible for being fired.

More than one year of hard time to get kicked out, isn't that cool?

Other than that, nothing doing. A highschooler we talked to the other day recounted missing classes because of a teacher who was in his seventh year of paid sick leave. That's not a typo, we have to stress the fact because we do commit quite a few typos in this publlication.

Perks of the Beamte status include no contributions to a pension plan, nothing goes into unemployment insurance, and more. Their pension comes straight out of the tax revenues and the lowest pension is set to twice the social security basic means tested eligibility threshold. A nice life for not being able to unionize while having salary increases pegged to what the unions get for non-Beamte employees.

As long as the man it only on sick leave, the school can not hire a permanent replacement and relies on short term contractors when the funds exist to pay them.

The second class consists of teachers who do not have the cherished status but do exactly the same work. In contrast to Beamte, the second class folks see much lower take home pay because all the payroll taxes come out of their pocket as with private sector employees.
They used to have a quite generous secondary pension scheme to make up for the discrepancy with their fellow Beamte. That scheme has been chipped at, reducing benefits substantially.

As of this post, they are on warning strikes in several states.

There is a third class of teachers, those at private schools. Their salaries are generally lower than those of either of the other two groups.

So, when you hear German politicians pledge equal pay for equal work, don't believe them.