Most importantly: talk to your colleagues about your working conditions and how you can improve them through collective action! The best way to do that is with the aid of the TVStud conversation manual.

You can also join the berlin-wide or your local campaign meetups to organise with your colleagues. You can look up upcoming meetings in the calendar, but note that they will generally be held in German.

Last but not least, you can join protests and other targeted actions, and – crucially – strike when a strike is called! You will find those in the calendar as well.

You can see upcoming meetings, berlin-wide as well as for your specific campus/institution, in the calendar.

If you work 40h/month, an increased wage of up to 14.68€ would have no impact on your family health insurance. This is because the “Werbungskostenpauschale” is deducted from your wages for the insurance calculations.

Naturally, because a wage of 14.68€ is still a long way from a real inflation adjustment, we want to achieve a markedly higher hourly wage. If that happens, to keep your family insurance you could simply work fewer hours! For example: with a wage of 16.78€, you would only have to work 35h per month to earn the allowed maximum of 587.50€ – 5 hours more leisure time, for more money!

The right to reduce your working hours is legally guaranteed, so the HR department cannot arbitrarily deny a request for fewer hours.

The same principle applies for BAföG as for family insurance: if your wage surpasses the income limit, you can simply work less!

For example: to make the maximum of 522.50€ a month at a wage of 16.32€, you would only have to work 32 hours – 8 hours more leisure time!

The right to reduce your working hours is legally guaranteed, so the HR department cannot arbitrarily deny a request for fewer hours.