Germany: a ruling which revives controversy on industry-wide minimum wage

Since Berlin's Administrative Court declared, on March 7, that the new minimum wage which came into effect on January 1, 2008 in postal services was "illegal", the controversy on this topic resumed with even greater intensity. During a debate at the Bundestag on March 12, the right wing of the conservative party and the FDP asked the SPD Employment Minister to revise the law. As for the Deutsche Post's private competitors, they threaten to ask for several million euros in damages. (Ref. 080205)
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The Deutsche Post’s private competitors – TNT and PIN – and the employers’ organization BdKEP referred the matter to Berlin’s administrative court, which ruled that the minimum wage negotiated by the services’ union Ver.di and by an employers’ organization run by the Deutsche Post, which the Federal Employment Minister extended to the entire branch, was “illegal”. Indeed, the judges say that this wage, between €9 and 9.8 gross an hour, can only apply to companies which are not covered by a coll

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