Germany : press review – Saturday January 7th to Friday January 13th 2006 –

For the second consecutive week, the social news in German newspapers was dominated by a controversy over the terms of a measure (Kombilohn) meant to develop low-qualified jobs. (Ref 0634)
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Der Spiegel is very interested by the controversy that is currently shaking the big-coalition government. The weekly magazine sets the problem, by asking if whether or not supplementary income given to badly paid employees would trigger new jobs. For Mrs’Merkel’s CDU party, the answer is yes. On the contrary, the SPD party says this measure could lead to a new budget crisis. Der Spiegel reminds of similar measures in the USA, Great Britain and France, and concludes that this instrument, if corr

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