Below you find a reaction on the
earlier published blog on German Mini Blogs (July 12 2013), written
by Adalbert Ewen, President of the German Metal Union CGM affliated
to the German Christian Confederation CGB. The CGM is affliated to
the World Organization of Wokers WOW.
At the beginning of
the new millennium, Germany was considered "the sick nation of
Europe". How could it therefore be possible to reverse this
situation and to grant Germany a role model– whether rightly or
wrongly?
In the years from
2001 onwards, the Schröder government underlined the importance of
national and international labor market reforms, particularly the
so-called "Hartz reforms" of the years 2003 to 2005. The
federal government applied the so-called flexicurity, that is,
demanding a stronger activation of jobseekers, by fully deregulating
the legal basis of individual forms of atypical employment
opportunities. Thus, the creation of minor employment was considered
the alternative to unemployment, especially in the expanding service
sector. Nevertheless, during high times of the new economy, one
resisted the temptation to expand this sector further, especially in
the financial sector. Instead, all Länder-governments wanted to
maintain and further strengthen the industrial 'Germany', including
special support for the middle class with a total of 1,400 companies,
belonging to the world market leaders. Here, the relationship between
trade unions and employers has played a major role. The social
partners established security of employment as a major element, which
has been crucial for the German success and for our competitiveness.
Therefore, the
importance of labor market reforms is often oversubscribed. Very
flexible labor agreements with the trade unions contributed to
strengthen the equity base of the companies and to increase
profitability. Therefore, even at the peak of the financial crisis in
2009, closure of a larger number of companies could be avoided, among
others due to short-time working.
Nevertheless, there
is a correlation between high growth rate and income inequality. In
Germany, thanks to reforms, unemployment has been reduced from five
to three million. The appropriate wage policy secured many
well-paying jobs in the industry. Therefore, Germany has a higher
share of industrial employment than France or England, for example.
Moreover, Germany presents a high trade surplus, because a large part
of industrial productions goes into the world market.
The beginning of the
millennium showed a real wage loss, but from 2005 onwards, trade
unions increasingly managed to reverse this trend. The only problem
left over, in fact, was the greatly increased number (more than 7
million) of atypical employments (mini-jobs, part-time and temporary
work). As much as these jobs contributed to more flexibility on one
hand, on the other, they also led to significant revenue losses for
the social security institutions, and they will lead to increasing
poverty among the elderly, especially women, whose average pension is
already significantly below that of men.
So-called
"mini-jobber" are not insured against unemployment and not
affiliated to the statutory pension insurance of self employed. The
latter has recently been made possible – though quite inadequately.
Mini-jobs put increasingly tariff rates (rates
established in collective agreements)
under pressure, because since ten years, the former limitation to a
maximum allowable working time has been dropped (crowding out effect
of regular employment).
Conclusions:
- Unemployed people bear the greatest risk of poverty. About 56 percent of them are at risk of living in poverty (poor people perceive less than 60 percent of average earnings in Germany).
- Nearly 59 percent of the poverty threatened is able to escape poverty by means of a low-wage job.
- According to my union, this mini-jobber need better legal requirements, most notably the elimination or significant reduction of the minimum threshold of compulsory social security.
While maintaining a
minimum threshold, the (re)introduction of a limit for allowable
working time in hours (previously 15 hours per week) is essential, in
order to allow an hourly wage corresponding to a minimum wage of 8.50
€ for a monthly salary up to 450 € - as requested by the unions.
Adalbert Ewen
CGM-Bundesvorsitzender
23/07/2013
No comments:
Post a Comment