At this year's virtual BPT Congress the following agenda item will be discussed on 25 November 2020:
Discussion: Skills shortage in veterinary practices - all good with a collective agreement?
The fundamental problem with this idea is:
Collective bargaining capability - what is needed for a collective agreement for veterinarians?
There is no collective agreement for salaried veterinarians. The reason: there is no employers' association capable of collective bargaining. There are initial efforts in this direction, such as the VuT.
What is necessary?
But until that time comes, the first question is - what is actually necessary to improve the working conditions for veterinarians in a collective agreement (veterinarians' collective agreement) and otherwise? A collective agreement can only ever provide a framework. And even if there were two parties to a collective agreement, an employer who is not a member of an employers' association does not have to adhere to the collective agreement. So what does it take to improve working conditions without a collective agreement?
Your opinions / ideas are needed
What do you think? We are interested in your opinion - a few short questions that can be answered anonymously in 5-10 minutes - we will publish the results here and in a renowned trade journal. Already over 150 participants - Join us and tell us what you think.
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Dear vets,
Is it really still appropriate to tie employees to the practice from eight in the morning until eight in the evening?
Who benefits from this three-hour lunch break? Surely nothing for you either.
The customers themselves have not been working nine to five for a long time.
Shift work, flexitime, home office, parental leave..., you can definitely offer customer-friendly AND employee-friendly opening hours.
I worked in the profession for 20 years with these hours. And for this reason (and the correspondingly low salary) I changed jobs. With a heavy heart. Because it was my dream job.
But let's be honest, who among the young adults entering the world of work wants to tell their friends and family that they can no longer plan anything because they work from morning to night?
During the three hours at lunchtime, the only social contacts are your own work colleagues.
That can't be life.
Example opening hours:
Mon + Tue: 8.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Wed: 8.00 to 12.30
Thu + Fri: 10.00 to 19.00 hrs
Sat: 8.00 to 12.30
In one way or another, it would be possible to achieve adequate availability for customers and continuous working hours for employees.
It's also not bad for the employer, who would certainly like to have a little bit of private life as well.
It would also do him good.
Apart from that, all collective bargaining is for nothing if the boss is not in the bpt and can pay whatever he wants.