BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Thousands of doctors at university hospitals have staged walkouts and rallies in numerous German states to demand higher incomes and better working conditions. Around 7000 doctors from 23 university hospitals took part in the warning strike rallies on Monday, according to the Marburger Bund doctors' union in Berlin.

A fourth round of negotiations between the doctors' union and the employers of the federal states had recently failed. However, Monika Heinold (Greens), the chief negotiator for the collective bargaining association of the German states (TdL), was optimistic about further negotiations. The doctors are demanding 12.5 percent more pay as well as higher bonuses for regular work at night, at weekends and on public holidays.

In the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia alone, around 2,500 hospital doctors went on strike all day at all six university hospitals, according to a state spokesperson for the Marburger Bund. The president of the North Rhine Medical Association, Rudolf Henke, the long-time head of the Marburger Bund, called out to the protesters at a rally in Düsseldorf: "It's about the performance and attractiveness of the university hospitals as a workplace." One poster with deliberately incorrect spelling read: "Tired doctors make Vehler". Another sign read: "Uniklinik: Come in and burn out" ("Come in and work yourself to death").

Around 2000 strikers from the Bavarian university hospitals gathered on Marienplatz in Munich. In Stuttgart, protesting doctors placed a symbolic hospital bed in front of the Ministry of Finance - the doctors demanded a "financial infusion" for the clinics. At a doctors' demonstration near the Ministry of Finance in Kiel, placards read "I do it almost for free at night and at weekends" and "I'm on strike so I can see the sun". In Greifswald, doctors gathered in front of the university hospital for a so-called strike breakfast.

According to Schleswig-Holstein's Finance Minister Heinold, she is counting on "finding a solution acceptable to both sides in the next round of negotiations at the end of March". The university hospitals should be perceived as attractive and modern employers where people enjoy working. "Our challenge in the negotiations with the Marburger Bund is that we must also take into account the salary development for the other 850,000 employees in the federal states," said Heinold. Heinold cited the civil service as a frame of reference for an overall package. Increases of more than 10 percent had been agreed there by the end of 2023.

The negotiations concern the salaries of more than 20,000 doctors in 23 university hospitals. Other collective agreements apply to doctors in Berlin, Hamburg and Hesse, for example./bw/DP/ngu