Germany's public sector has moved closer to a full-blown strike in January after pay talks affecting about three million workers collapsed.
Frank Bsirske, chairman of the Verdi services sector union, said on Thursday that government employers and union negotiators had failed to reach a deal after about 13 hours of talks in the central German city of Kassel. He said Verdi, seeking a pay rise of more than three percent, had rejected a pay offer from employers as "totally unacceptable."
Interior Minister Otto Schily, who took part in the talks, said employers offered to resume talks in January. Germany's federal and regional governments and local authorities, already facing a European Union rebuke for running up budget deficits, had been pushing for a wage freeze as stagnating growth has sapped their tax revenues.
It is not immediately clear what offer employers had made during the talks, covering nurses, transport workers, firefighters and other public sector employees.
Verdi, Germany's biggest trade union, gave the country a taste of what lies in store by calling brief stoppages this week in local transport and at airports, causing widespread disruptions to services. Hundreds of domestic flights were cancelled.
The government is keen to avoid a repeat of the last all-out public sector strike in 1992, when uncollected rubbish, undelivered post and patchy transport caused chaos.
Verdi's wage commission - the panel which decides whether to accept or decline an offer - is scheduled to meet later on Thursday and Bsirske said he would recommend that the commission declares the pay talks as failed, paving the way for a possible strike in January.
An independent arbitration panel is now likely to be appointed to seek a deal. If that fails, strikes can take place. The current public sector wage agreement expired on October 31. It was a 31-month deal comprising a two-stage increase of 2.0 and then 2.4 percent plus a one-off payment.