The 22nd Chamber of the Berlin Labour Court today ruled in the first instance that the collective agreement on the granting of a capital city allowance applies to Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin (HU) and Freie Universit?t Berlin (FU).
The university managements are not fundamentally opposed to their employees also benefiting from the capital city allowance, but must await and examine the court's reasoning. If the judgement is upheld, both the HU and the FU have undertaken to pay the capital city allowance retroactively.
Financing of the capital city allowance still open
However, the financing of the capital city allowance remains unresolved. This is because the Berlin House of Representatives, unlike the Senate Administration itself and the state authorities, has not yet provided the Berlin universities with any additional funds to finance the capital city allowance. Universities and trade unions are jointly opposing this form of unequal treatment.
"Today's decision is good news for our employees, although we now have to wait for the court's written justification and scrutinise it carefully. What we urgently need now is a binding commitment from the Berlin House of Representatives for the additional funds required. In the interests of equal treatment of all state employees, we universities expect a clear commitment from the House of Representatives," said Niels Helle-Meyer, Vice President of the Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin for Budget, Human Resources and Technology.
Signalling effect for other universities
The capital city allowance will result in considerable additional costs for both universities over the next few years. For HU and FU, the combined costs for the capital city allowance will amount to around 10 million euros per year in 2025. These additional costs in the millions would further exacerbate the already strained financial situation in which the universities currently find themselves due to budget cuts and would inevitably lead to further painful cuts in the areas of study, teaching, research and administration if no additional funds for the capital city allowance were to be approved by the House of Representatives. The collective agreement for the capital city allowance already came into force on 1 April 2025 and therefore additional payments will be necessary if the ruling stands.
Together with the trade unions, the university management had obtained clarification from the courts, as the Berlin Senate was unable to answer whether the employees of Berlin's universities were entitled to the capital city allowance or not. Today's decision by the Labour Court does not apply to all Berlin universities, but only to the HU and FU. The HU has concluded the TV-L HU and the FU the TV-L FU, for all other Berlin universities the TV-L applies. Nevertheless, the decision is likely to send a signal to the other Berlin universities.