News

More and more large German companies have founded their own in-house temporary employment agencies in order to hire out staff to themselves and thereby avoid industry-agreed minimum wages.



About a year ago, Schlecker, European store chain with 14,000 retail stores and 52,000 employees, started closing its small shops (Drogeriemark) in Bremen, Heidelberg, or many other cities in Germany and replacing them with Schlecker XL Markt. Employees were told either to leave or to get employment via "Meniar", an agency established and run by former Scheckler executives. There, wages were negotiated with a small Christian trade union and were 30-50% lower than in the rest of the sector.

UNI's German affiliate ver.di and the two main temporary employers’ federations condemn this practice. Mrs. Ariane Durian, leader of the Federation of Temporary Work Agencies (IGZ), thinks that what Schlecker is doing is no more than “organized wage dumping.” “These practices, unknown to our sector, are threatening temporary work’s image” added Volker Enkerts, president of the Association of Temporary Employers (BZA). “We want, in cases of internal interim, the law to force businesses treating agency workers the same way as permanent workers.”