The TU Berlin Staff Council is committed to providing the best possible working conditions for the university employees it represents.
From the workplace design and equipment to food, safeguarding necessary hygienic conditions and promoting health, the Staff Council is committed to good workplaces.
The implementation of these demands has often failed due to insufficient financial resources and due to staff fluctuation.
We as the Staff Council Verdi-list, therefore, favor a strategy combining personnel recruitment with an improved room situation -reasonable room occupancy and modern sanitary facilities in all TU buildings. In this context, room occupancy is a major issue, and the implementation of the current workplace regulations at the TU Berlin must be viewed with scepticism.
The Corona crisis has shown that this skepticism is justified. Even before the pandemic, rooms were already very densely occupied – under corona conditions the problem has become acute. These times show that the Staff Council’s was correct in its long-term view and its commitment and efforts to implement teleworking (home office) and „remote/mobile working”.
In this context, it was quickly apparent that for many university employees, the conditions for remote/mobile working were not met and financial support was needed, a demand which has been repeatedly made clear to the university management. In the meantime, the following was achieved: our president agreed to provide a monthly flat-rate reimbursement of costs for Corona-related home office- this being the only such case, Berlin-wide. Now, the availability of comprehensive technical equipment should follow to ensure „normal“ home office.
The TU Berlin’s high expectations of employees’ quality of work, despite the thinned-out staff and the high workload, must be connected to quality working conditions and a culture that promotes appreciation and good communication. The Ver.di list in the staff council will work towards this goal.
For the best possible working conditions at the TU Berlin:
- ergonomically designed workplaces
- unbureaucratic teleworking and the expansion of remote/mobile working
- modern IT equipment
