According to the IG-Metall, approximately 1 million of the 3.6 million working in the metal, auto, electronics and machine-tool industry are either agency workers or employed with a service provision contract, i.e. with wages much lower than those paid to company staff. It’s the first time such precise figures are released on the issue. The IG-Metall is particularly pointing to BMW, which is getting ready for a substantial increase in the number of workers with service provision contracts in all its German factories. At the same time, the heads of Daimler, Opel, BMW and Volkswagen threatened, in an interview published this weekend, to relocate part of their activity if the current negotiations between the CDU/CSU (conservatives) and the SPD (social-democrats) lead to the introduction of universal minimum wage and more controls over service provision contracts by works councils. (Ref. 130716)
Popular practices in auto construction. Nearly one third of the 3.6 million people working in the metal, auto, electronics and machine tool industry, i.e. about 1 million, work as agency workers or with a service provision contract (Werkvertragsarbeiter). These are the figures the IG-Metall released this weekend in the Der Spiegel magazine. For several months, the union has been meticulously counting these employees, a first in Germany. Contacted by Planet Labor, Ingrid Gier, spokesperson for the IG-Metall, explained that these figures are the result of census work that isn’t over and whose global results will be revealed later.
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