Publicly funded employment sector

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This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

The publicly funded employment sector (ÖBS) describes a third sector of the labor market between the market and the state . On the one hand, it is about creating jobs for the unemployed with a living wage and requiring social security, and on the other hand, organizing socially necessary work. In addition, social cohesion is to be strengthened and exclusion prevented.

Third sector between market and state

The activities that are carried out within the framework of an ÖBS are work that does not pay off in the capitalist sense and should therefore be socially financed, but mostly organized outside the state. These are usually civil society structures such as B. social advice centers, women's centers, socio-cultural centers or neighborhood homes.

A publicly funded third sector can not only expand and consolidate the work that is necessary for society, it should also improve the working conditions of employees. In addition, new (professional) prospects can be created for the unemployed by contributing their skills, abilities and experience and further qualifying themselves. As an element of active labor market policy , the ÖBS thus contributes to reducing unemployment.

Practical example: The ÖBS in Berlin

An ÖBS that does the above Conditions are met, there is in Germany at present only in Berlin . Originally, the Berlin state government ( SPD / Die Linke ) wanted to use the funds to finance the ÖBS that already have to be paid under (Hartz IV / SGB II) : Unemployment benefit II , housing costs , social security contributions and the cost of a job with additional expense allowance ( one euro job ) . These funds should be bundled and topped up with state and ESF funds to a living wage of at least € 7.50 per hour or € 1,300 per month. This idea was initially rejected by the Red-Greens federal government and later by the grand coalition. The state government in Berlin had to look for a special way for the ÖBS. It therefore uses two federal labor market policy programs that were only introduced in 2007 for long-term unemployed ALG II recipients for financing and increases these positions to the minimum (wage) level of € 1,300 politically required by the Senate . These are the programs Job Perspective according to § 16e SGB ​​II (employment subsidy) and KommunalKombi . The job perspective program can only be used for long-term unemployed people with so-called multiple placement barriers. The federal government bears 75% of the wage costs. The amount of the payment is based on the collectively agreed or local wage. For the Berlin ÖBS, the Senate has agreed with the Regional Directorate Berlin-Brandenburg of the Federal Employment Agency that at least a wage of € 7.50 per hour is to be paid and that the state provides a corresponding co-financing or increase. As a result, the employees earn at least € 1,300 a month. Otherwise the respective collective agreements or the local payment apply. If the hourly wages agreed there are less than € 7.50, there cannot be an ÖBS position in this area. If they are higher, these hourly wages apply.

The second federal program that serves as the basis for the Berlin ÖBS is the KommunalKombi . People who have been unemployed for at least 24 months and who have been receiving unemployment benefit II for at least one year can take part. Here the federal government bears 50% of the wage costs for a 30-hour job, up to a maximum of € 500 plus € 100 for social security contributions. In order to ensure that living wages of at least € 1,300 are paid with this program, the state must raise significantly more funds when applying the KommunalKombi program .

Fields of action

A good third of the employees in Berlin's ÖBS earn more than the specified minimum wage of € 1,300 because they are grouped in collective agreements where the wages are higher. At the end of 2008, over 5,000 former long-term unemployed people were employed in the ÖBS in Berlin, and in 2009 the number will be increased. The employees in the ÖBS are spread all over the city. They organize pushing services for wheelchair users and accompany people with reduced mobility when using local public transport . They organize help with homework for children with a migrant background and act as interpreters to support parents with language problems during parenting evenings at school or in daycare . The ÖBS organizes social markets for low-income families or creates barrier-free district plans for people with disabilities. Neighborhood mothers support immigrant families, and other projects organize computer courses. Still others provide childcare outside of the normal daycare and after-school hours. This not only creates jobs for the long-term unemployed in the ÖBS, it also enables parents to keep their jobs or to become independent of transfer payments through full-time employment. In other projects, children learn how to eat healthily, while others promote the knowledge and skills of older people. Energy advice is provided for people on low incomes. Various women and lesbian projects receive further support. The cultural work has its own sector in the ÖBS. The KulturArbeit initiative creates jobs for artists and cultural education in Berlin, at schools, cultural centers and many other places.

literature

  • Harald Werner (Ed.): Between State and Market. The publicly funded employment sector . Hamburg 1999.

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