Germany: Labour Minister to introduce minimum wage in all branches

Less than two weeks after a very disputed minimum wage came into effect in the postal sector (see our articles No. 071031, 071004), Olaf Scholz (SPD), German Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, sent his colleagues, on January 11, 2008, two bills, aiming at introducing, by this summer, a minimum wage in as many branches as possible. Employers immediately asked the government to stop this project. (Ref. 080046)
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“I want citizens to be protected against social dumping. The easiest would have been to introduce a general legal minimum wage. But Christian-democrats are strongly opposed to the idea; which is why we, in the large coalition, chose to introduce minimum wage one branch at a time”, Olaf Scholz pointed out in an interview to the Berliner Zeitung daily on January 12. In other words, this means that the minister wants to modernize in depth two existing laws, that “on posted worker” (Entsendegesetz

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