Employees in North Rhine Westphalia, Bavaria, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein took part in the labour actions on Tuesday.

Major trade union Verdi is aiming to put more pressure on the employers during the current round of negotiations over conditions in the public sector.

In North Rhine Westphalia, the six large university hospitals in Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Essen and Muenster took part in the so-called “warning strike.”

A spokesperson for the hospital in Essen expected “considerable restrictions in patient care.”

Verdi and the hospitals had agreed however that basic care should not be put at risk.

The head of the Essen university hospital, Jochen Werner, criticized the timing of the warning strikes given the worsening coronavirus situation in Germany.

Intensive care units are under more pressure each day as more patients get admitted with Covid-19.

The hard-left Die Linke argued that the pandemic was a key factor in the strike: “Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, the workload in the health sector has increased again and at the same time the cost of living has risen. A marked wage increase is more than appropriate,” said co-party leader Janine Wissler.

Verdi and several other trade unions are demanding 5 per cent more pay for public sector workers, and an increase of at least 150 euros (170 dollars) per month. Trainees and interns should receive 100 euros more per month, they said.

A further round of negotiations is set for the end of November. Until then, further warning strikes are expected in the public sector across the country.