According to the German trade union ver.di, the majority of freelance music teachers at Berlin's music schools have refused to sign "imposed new fee contracts". Now there are apparently mass redundancies.
Due to a new "fee regulation" from the Senate, the districts feel compelled to take this measure and are "already feverishly searching the market for new teachers for the fall," ver.di continued.
The state is thus destroying teams at music schools that have grown over decades, the union continues. The process is "outrageous and unprecedented in the history of German music schools". Next Friday, the ver.di music section will demonstrate against the dismissals together with the Berlin state teachers' union.
According to the "Berliner Zeitung", freelance music school teachers will no longer receive a monthly flat fee in future, but will have to bill each lesson individually. Income during vacations would be eliminated. The annual gross fee of a Berlin music school teacher is around 12,500 euros.
The fee contracts have to be renewed because the German Pension Insurance has diagnosed pseudo self-employment in many teachers. The teachers were only living off income from their music school activities. The state of Berlin therefore has to pay social benefits in arrears.
