Equal pay
Under the Equal Pay ( "Equal pay") refers to the supply of temporary workers to pay with a user of a wage at the same level as a comparable worker of the borrower the demand, a temporary worker for the duration of the lease. This is the difference between Equal Pay and Equal Treatment. Equal Treatment means the equal treatment of temporary workers and permanent employees, e.g. B. for bonuses, vacation entitlements but also access to the canteen and use of facilities such as the company kindergarten.
The German Temporary Employment Act prescribes such equal treatment in Section 9 (1) No. 2, Section 8 (1) AÜG, but opens up the possibility of deviating from the principle of equal pay through collective agreements . This has been used across the board in the German temporary work sector. Directive 2008/104 / EC, which as European law breaks the German AÜG, provides for equal treatment as a norm in the case of synchronization, ie for the simultaneous limitation of the employment contract and the leasing contract. Tariff deviations from equal treatment are only allowed if they do not have a negative effect on the temporary workers.
Furthermore, Directive 2008/104 / EC obliges all EU member states to ensure that the interests of temporary workers are represented in the company.
Principle of equal treatment in the Temporary Employment Act
In Germany, almost 1 million people are currently employed by a temporary employment agency , which is around two percent of all employees. The number of agency workers has almost tripled since 2001. The industry is highly segmented, there are around 17,500 temporary employment agencies.
The Temporary Employment Act (AÜG) lays down legal rules for temporary work. According to Section 8 (1) of the AÜG, the lender is obliged to “grant the temporary worker the essential working conditions applicable to a comparable employee of the hirer, including remuneration, for the period of the leasing to the borrower”.
In addition to wages, the “essential working conditions” also include working hours, overtime, vacation entitlement and the use of social facilities in the company. Section 13b grants temporary workers access to communal facilities such as childcare facilities, communal catering and means of transport. These services are to be granted to temporary work "under the same conditions as comparable employees in the company in which the temporary worker performs his work."
The AÜG basically calls for temporary workers and permanent workers to be treated equally (equal treatment). In the political discussion there is more talk of equal pay, which puts the focus on the level of wages. The principle of equal treatment and equal pay can be deviated from by means of a collective bargaining agreement in accordance with Section 8 (2) sentence 1 AÜG. Use has been made of this in the collective agreements between the Federal Association of Personnel Service Providers (BAP) and the Association of German Temporary Employment Companies (iGZ) on the one hand and the DGB trade unions on the other. The collective agreements not only regulate the amount of wages (which varies downwards), but also other claims such as company pension schemes, vacation entitlements, profit sharing or bonuses, etc.
Collective agreements in temporary work
There are currently two main collective bargaining systems in the temporary work sector. The temporary employers 'associations IGZ and BZA have each concluded collective agreements with a DGB collective agreement for temporary work, and there is also a collective agreement between the employers' association for medium-sized personnel service providers (AMP) and the Christian trade union federation for temporary work and personnel service agencies (CGZP). However, the Federal Labor Court ruled on December 14, 2010 that the CGZP is not eligible for tariffs (1 ABR 19/10); the collective agreement concluded by it is therefore ineffective. In 2011, BZA and AMP merged to form the Federal Employers' Association of Personnel Service Providers (BAP). Both collective agreements will continue to exist side by side until the end of their term in 2013. In addition to these large collective agreements, there are also a number of smaller collective agreements.
In the IGZ 3,500 of the 11,300 German temporary employment agencies are organized, in the BAP there are over 4,600. The big companies in the branch also employ most of the temporary workers, so that around 90 percent of the 920,000 temporary workers work under a collective agreement, the IGZ and BAP work with the DGB unions completed. From April 1, 2020, both wage agreements provide for a minimum hourly wage of € 10.15 in the west and € 9.88 in the east for the lowest of the nine pay groups . As of October 1, 2020, the increase in the east will be € 10.10; from April 1, 2021, € 10.45 will be reached in the west and east. This value is particularly important because the majority of temporary workers work in the helper area, i.e. they belong to salary group 1. Since January 1, 2012, these minimum wages have been generally binding by resolution of the federal government , so they also apply to temporary employment agencies that are not bound by collective bargaining agreements. The wage in pay group 9 is € 22.12 (West) and € 20.79 (East). However, this pay group is rarely reached.
In temporary work, collective agreements are also regularly applied to non-unionized temporary workers. The possibility of equal treatment by foregoing tariff application in the main company hardly occurs in practice. The application of collective bargaining agreements in the main company mostly corresponds to a company exercise and not, for example, the collective bargaining of temporary workers through membership in a union that does not include collective bargaining agreements. The motivation for this regular application of the tariff is the possibility created in the AÜG to deviate from equal treatment according to the tariff. De facto, the collective bargaining law for temporary workers in Germany is a regular unequal treatment of temporary workers, which almost always has a disadvantageous effect compared to the comparable employees of the deployment companies, although equal treatment has been established as a norm by the legislator. In this respect, the DGB's industry tariffs for temporary work can be described as the lowest point of tariff policy in Germany.
Pay gap between temporary workers and employees of the hirer
The collective wages for temporary work are significantly lower than the wages that individual DGB trade unions have negotiated with the respective employers' association; the equal-pay principle is therefore rarely applied in practice. Equal pay takes place in a few companies, e.g. B. by collective agreement regulation. Depending on the industry, the wage gap fluctuates significantly, it is strongest in the metal industry: A temporary worker hired out to a metal company receives up to 48% less salary than a comparable worker from the hirer, according to a study published in 2012 by the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung shows on behalf of Bertelsmann Stiftung . However, the study did not take into account all wage-related factors such as work experience, previous periods of unemployment and weekly working hours. The Institute for Employment Research IAB determined a pay difference of 22 percent in a study. The wage difference generally decreases with increasing qualifications. There are even areas in which temporary workers make more money than the hirer's employees, for example with highly specialized engineers. In its initiative "Equal Work - Equal Money", IG Metall is demanding an industry surcharge for temporary workers. For the time in which they are left to a metal company, they should receive an allowance that puts them on an equal footing with the hirer's employees in terms of pay. On May 22, 2012, the DGB collective agreement for temporary work and the temporary employment associations IGZ and BAP agreed on the industry surcharges in five levels, staggered according to the duration of the assignment: after six weeks of employment there is an industry surcharge of 15 percent, after three months 20 percent, after five months 30 percent, after seven months 45 percent and after nine months finally an industry surcharge of 50 percent.
Employee participation in temporary work
The pay gap is favored by the fact that in most of the parent companies there is no co-determination. Of the estimated 1.3 million temporary workers in Germany, only a marginal proportion have the opportunity to exercise their right to employee participation.
In individual unionized companies, works councils have enforced collective agreements to restrict or prevent temporary work.
According to the statutes, the DGB member unions have committed themselves to treat their members equally regardless of the employer. Members of a DGB union have the option of addressing union members other than their statutory works councils.
Since temporary workers, especially those who are not unionized, usually do not have their own works councils or staff councils, the works and staff councils of the employing companies almost always take on external co-determination tasks for temporary workers. In practice, the right of temporary workers to have a say in the main company is very seldom used. At the time of the works and staff council elections, temporary workers are usually deregistered so that they are no longer eligible to vote on election day. The active right of choice of temporary workers in the deployment company only begins after three months of deployment. The passive right to vote only applies in the main company, and only after six months of service. Most temporary workers cannot exercise their right to vote in works or staff council elections because they do not meet the legal requirements (BetrVG / staff representation laws) regarding the minimum period of employment or seniority. With regard to the main companies, the temporary workers often lack the knowledge of who is employed by the same main company and who is therefore even eligible for a works or staff council election. The co-determination laws in Germany require a minimum of three employees from the same company for the appointment of an electoral board and at least five employees from the same company for the election of a works council or staff council. The establishment of works and staff councils on the initiative of temporary workers almost always fails because of these minimum legal requirements. One reason for this is that the deployment companies order temporary workers from different companies, so that in most cases no group can be formed in the same deployment company that would be able to organize a works council or staff council. Furthermore, the parent companies usually do not hold any works meetings that would enable the temporary workers to organize works councils or staff councils from different companies.
Employment times in temporary employment agencies often exceed three or even six months. In other words, employee participation is not excluded from the outset through short employment periods. Nonetheless, the tendency to shorten temporary work (maximum leasing period of 18 months, collective bargaining restrictions or the prevention of temporary work, avoidance of collectively agreed employment allowances and industry surcharges, avoidance of equal treatment, avoidance of transfer) mean that works councils and staff councils are always established in parent companies becomes less likely.
To date, there is no known agreement that one will refrain from dismissing employees for the period of the works or staff council elections. Neither have any measures to promote employee co-determination been provided for in the collective agreements for temporary work, although collective agreements on co-determination are customary for the employing companies. The DGB has not remained true to itself on this point.
Individual evidence
- ↑ [1] ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Federal Employers' Association of Personnel Service Providers: collective agreements for temporary work. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. "IG Zeitarbeit: Figures on temporary work". Retrieved May 11, 2012.
- ↑ The BAP at a glance
- ^ Sven Astheimer: Justice, money and temporary work . In: FAZ.NET . Retrieved May 11, 2012.
- ↑ Press and Information Office of the Federal Government : As of January 2012, minimum wage in temporary work ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , December 20, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
- ↑ IGZ folding card ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.9 MB), IGZ-DGB collective bargaining agreement for the temporary work sector, short version. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
- ^ Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Economic Research: The challenge of temporary work. (PDF) Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2012, accessed on May 29, 2019 (2.9 MB).
- ↑ Florian Lehmer / Kerstin Ziegler: Wage differential temporary work (PDF; 49 kB) from April 14, 2011, p. 2. Accessed on May 11, 2012
- ↑ IG Metall: Making temporary work fair - Initiative Same Work - Same Money . Retrieved May 11, 2012.
- ↑ Temporary work: Adjustment of tariffs in the metal and electrical industry in five steps ( Memento of the original from May 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release from IG Zeitarbeit on the conclusion of collective bargaining, accessed on May 23, 2012.
Web links
- Equal Pay in Temporary Employment (PDF; 582 kB), result of a survey