Chocolate and Cutthoat Competition in the Assembly Line

Expoitation of Germany's temporay workforces?

 
The grand coalition stands. Only three months after the election the inaugruation date seems to creep closer in a petty pace, but steady wins the race, at least according to Angela Merkel. The future ministers can be certain, under their Chistmas trees, wrapped in red, gold and black will be a shiny coalition treaty and the promise of a bright future for Germany under Cabinett Merkel III.

For the host of temporary workers in Germany this Christmas will not be such a happy occasion. For their contracts might just be cancelled, not prolonged or frozen - labour maket adjustments, as experts my call it. In the statistics of the Federal Employment Agency this is euphemized - Germany's most highly dynamic sector.

In conctrete terms this means, for half a year Mr. M. (because he is statistically more likely to be male and underqulified), will be hired by a temporary employment agency i.e. a middleman. This middleman holds all the cards, he will send out Mr. M. to make chocolate and pralinés before the Chistmas run on sweets, only to be let go because the world renowned Chocolate Manufacturer doesn't need him anymore. It's eight days before the holidays and the by law Mr. M. is obliged to start a new job, granted that has nothing to do with chocolate or sweets of any kind - more like sweat in an in a different assembly line.

Now, statistics tell us 16 % of all the people that were fired in 2012 come from the so called 1st labour market, the proper jobs, however 17% of all newly hired workers are temporary. How does that work? Mr. M., who for almost 40 years of his life had worked for the same company, where he made good money to keep his family afloat and even get his dauther into university, had previously sent an application to said famous Frankonian Chocolate Manufacturer, but unfortunatelly aged 60 the poor man with no prior expertise in the art of chocolate making, got a nice letter, saying they had enough hands to stem the pre-Chistmas production. Right. That is why Mr. M. merely a month later got to make pralinés in a chocolaty assembly line, for 8.19 Euro an hour and not the tariff wages of the staffers, because they had enough. But than again this could all be just a misunderstanding.

Let's take a look at the numbers. From July till December 2012 481.000 temporary workers were hired. Positv news, half a million people were in employment, still, on the down side, during those very same six months 658.000 people like Mr. M. were thrown back out in the cold. Somehow this ever growing sector seems to be eating its workers - especially since most of them are only hired for 3 month and less. In a way Mr. M. as the new prototypical second class worker was lucky with his six months contract.

The responsability for social security and welfare was outsourced and is heavily subsidised by the German government. This fancy new term that rode along on the wave of globalization, in fact means in his working life Mr. M. is now bound in a menage à trois, and shoffed between the lender and the borrower as some kind of comodity. And suddenly Polonius springs to mind. While this particular loan may not cause any rift between friends or dull the "edge of husbandry", it activly widens the chasm between a new first and second citizen.
 

How did that become such a hot button topic one might woder? It statred out with the Agenda 2010 under Chancellor Schörder. In December 1982 there were 20.000 temporary workers, post-Harz IV Reform in 2012 there were 822.000, seven to eight times as many. Consequently the number of tempoary employment agencies has also risen to a stunning 18.000 (2012). Of couse Germany - the export world champion in wage dumping - may torn down walls and opened doors when it comes to exploitation, especially if one is inclined to ask the French slaughter house workers who are about to lose their jobs, they don't blame their government, they blame the Germans and the non-existant minimum wages. You may think 8.19 Euro is little but the abattoirs in the North of Germany hire temps from Rumania, who, like Jurgis Rudkus, work and live in unpleasent conditions, in dire poverty, especially with the absence of social programms. This is not Chicago at the turn of the century, but hopelessness seems to prevail even now almost 100 years after the first publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

It is a jungle out their, predator and prey. But the grand coalition managed to include a clause on temporary workers, better wages for the temps and a minium wage for Germany - 8.50, social security and protection from exploitation. We have saved the banks, even those second class workers paid their dues, depending on who you ask 30 to 70 billion Euro in Germany alone. We should manage to bail out our workers?



Statistics - Federal Employment Agency (German)
http://statistik.arbeitsagentur.de/cae/servlet/contentblob/244170/publicationFile/119019/Arbeitsmarkt-Deutschland-Zeitarbeit-Aktuelle-Entwicklung-1HJ2010.pdf

Saving the banks (German)
http://boerse.ard.de/anlagestrategie/branchen/bankenrettung-kostet-steuerzahler-milliarden100.html

Coalition Treaty (German)
http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/koalitionsvertrag136.pdf
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/bundestagswahl/koalitionsvertrag-das-wichtigste-im-ueberblick-12682884.html