(Civil service; 03-03; p.4)

Results and suggestions

In regard to the output aimed at, two results of the commission's analysis are to be high-lighted:

• the civil service does not or not to an extent wanted achieve the goals that were given to it, the reason being a too strong orientation towards rules and a neglect of the respective ends of services;

• providing pensions for permanent civil servants does lead to "massive financial problems" (translated; Regierungskommission, p. 14) and the splitting between permanent, contract employees and workers does lead to unwanted effects.

To correct this, the suggestions of the commission are multi-levelled: firstly, the framework of laws has to be changed, secondly, the processes have to be made steerable by the ones involved.

 

Changing the framework of laws

According to the commission, it is the task of the government - and thus in a wider sense of a society - to define, which services should be provided by state authorities.
The main question is, if services that have to be guaranteed by a social state like Germany, have to be provided by the state. However, out-sourcing and letting services be provided by third parties have to be discussed meticulously: 'not to be recommended would be privatisation "at any rate"' (translated; ibid., p. 16).

The aforementioned splitting of employees - which does not only cause a bunch of different salaries or payments for equal work, but also different pensions - should be replaced by widest possible employments based on contracts. Such employments should moreover be protected by agreements between trade unions and the state, but instead of a regional or federal basis they should be based on profession, e.g. salary scales for "care, hospitals, science, schools etc." (translated; ibid., p.22). In total, all changes shall not lead to greater budgetary needs.
- In Germany, trade unions and employers negotiate the terms of contracts, and the right to do so autonomously is part of the constitution, the Basic Law.

Within then agreed terms and scales, salaries should always have a fixed and a component based on performance; the higher the salary, the bigger the performance component. For employees outside this agreements, mandatory "salary strings" (translated; ibid., p.21) should be established, i.e. a salary within certain limits, that is connected to functions and based on measurable permanent performance.
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