Tuesday, March 28th., 2017
'Unbearable Injustice': Berlin Police Salaries Are Lower Than Social Payments
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REUTERS/ Fabrizio Bensch
The
unemployed in Berlin get more government money than the police each
month, André Grashof, head of the fraud department at the Berlin police
told Sputnik Germany, adding that the police are going to file a lawsuit
with the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
The
salary of Berlin police employees is the lowest in Germany. One of the
policemen made the appropriate calculations and sounded the alarm, André
Grashof told Sputnik Germany.
Grashof believes that the low salaries of the Berlin police
contradict the country's constitution. Now Grashof is collecting money
to file a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court.
He also noted that the police have big problems filling available vacancies.
"The legislation provides that the family of a
civil servant who receives a salary at the bottom of the tariff scale
should gain 15% more money than a family living on social benefits," the
police representative explained.
It
turns out that people who just start their work in the police have an
income of 24,800 euros per year, while the family that lives on the
allowance would receive about 23,900 euros a year, only 900 euro less.
However, the family of a police officer has a lot of monthly expenses
which the family living on unemployment benefits does not have to pay.
They include, for example, the costs of public transport as well as a
reimbursement of the radio and TV tax, which "reduce" the actual income
to 22,600 euros a year.
"It turns out that the family of a civil
servant should receive 2,600 euros more to comply with the directives
of the Federal Constitutional Court," Grashof explained.
Grashof believes that the position of the Belin police officers is
simply unbearable. Such conditions do not contribute to a person's
willingness to work as a civil servant in Berlin, he said.He also noted that the police have big problems filling available vacancies.
"The gap between the elderly and young
employees is increasing, and in the coming years we will have a huge
wave of retirement, which we won't be able to compensate. The longer our
politicians leave this question unanswered, the more dramatic the
situation will become," Grashof stated.
According to him, the respect for police work implies "a much higher
pay, which, among other things, can again motivate people" and "attract
valuable specialists back to Berlin."