Due to the U.S. government shutdown, thousands of employees of the U.S. Armed Forces in Germany face the risk of a halt in salary payments, according to union reports. The services union Verdi warned on Tuesday of impending wage losses for around 12,000 civilian employees in Germany and called on the federal government to cover the payments. “Salary losses due to budget disputes are prohibited under German law, this also applies to the shutdown in the U.S.,” explained Verdi Deputy Chair Christine Behle.
The civilian employees worked full-time in October and must cover rent, living expenses, and other costs. “They are entitled to their wages and salaries,” Behle emphasized. She urged the German government to “take responsibility for the German employees” and cover the payments if the salaries continue to be withheld. Behle also assured the affected employees of union support: “If wages and salaries are actually not paid, we will provide our members with advice and, if necessary, legal protection.”
The shutdown came into effect on October 1 after former President Trump’s Republicans and the Democrats in Congress failed to agree on a continuing budget. The budget freeze will end only when a continuing budget is passed, and this is still not in sight. Due to the U.S. budget freeze, an estimated 700,000 federal employees in the U.S. have already been sent on forced leave, during which they do not receive a salary. Only essential services such as air traffic control, police, border protection, or emergency hospital services are exempt.
In recent years, the U.S. has experienced such shutdowns repeatedly, according to Verdi, these previously had no negative impact in Germany: salaries were still paid. “What is new is that the current U.S. administration apparently refuses to comply with German law,” Behle stated. She emphasized that the legal situation is clear: local employees are fully subject to German labor, collective bargaining, and social law, based on the NATO Status of Forces Agreement and supplementary agreements.
According to Verdi, the salaries of German employees of the U.S. Armed Forces, who work in non-military areas such as logistics, catering, fire protection, and security, are normally paid after approval from the U.S. authorities. This approval has still not been granted since the complete U.S. shutdown began on October 1. The locations most affected include Ramstein and Kaiserslautern in Rhineland-Palatinate, the Upper Palatinate, as well as Wiesbaden and Stuttgart.
Markus Klein, a CDU state parliament member from Kaiserslautern in Rhineland-Palatinate, stated to the Ludwigshafen-based newspaper Rheinpfalz that he does “not want to leave the German employees out in the cold.” He called for Rhineland-Palatinate taxpayers to step in and pay the salaries in the meantime, with the understanding that the money would be reimbursed by the Trump administration.
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