Germany: IG-Metall wants to limit appeal to temporary work as in Thuringia

Combining economic subsidies and volume of temporary employment.  On Wednesday, April 13th, the IG-Metall Frankfurt and its general secretary, Armin Schild, met with the Minister of Economic Affairs of Thuringia, Matthias Machning, and the leader of the IG-Metall, Berthold Huber, to announce the outline of a new strategy.  “I want German regions to accept the rules for granting businesses subsidies so public subsidies help create jobs and limit appeal to temporary work” declared Berthold Huber.  “Assisting businesses should aim to support the creation of regular jobs” he said.  Huber’s request refers to the system developed in Thuringia under the leadership of Mr. Machning.  Indeed, since April 1, 2011, the Thuringia administration has decided to link the amount of subsidies given to businesses and the number of temporary workers employed in these businesses.  While the rate of temporary workers employed in Thuringia doesn’t exceed 4% of active workers, some businesses are abusing this system.  Machning mentioned the case of businesses where 40% of employees are temporary.  “We need to bring order and the law back on the labor market” he said, criticizing the use of temporary work as a tool of social dumping.  From now on, his region will check the status of employees working on projects assisted by public money.  For up to 10% of temporary workers, businesses are entitled to the maximum rate of regional help.  Between 10 and 30% of temporary workers, subsidies are reduced to 20% of the maximum amount for SMEs and 15% for large businesses.  For more than 30%, investment support is canceled.  Machining says this measure matches the needs of businesses and employers that use temporary work to make their functioning more flexible in the face of economic evolutions.  He thinks the advantage is that this measure limits social dumping in the region.  He thinks that pay and employment stability should also draw skilled workers to Thuringia.