Eight of the 16 regional governments (Länder) have introduced new rules on procurement to improve the pay and conditions of workers employed by contractors. A further four Länder will join them shortly. The regions are using three mechanisms to protect pay. First, there are the sectoral minimum wages that have been introduced in some sectors like waste and social care. Second, there are specific rules covering the transport sector and third, some regions have introduced their own hourly minimum wage rate. These are some results of recent research by the Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/433
German: http://boeckler.de/2877_37424.htm
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.