Germany -The food processing industry and low pay -December 27, 2013

According to the trade union NGG, which represents food industry employees, most workers in the meat industry are eastern European, employed under ‘miserable’ conditions. In recent publications also the ‘hidden’ costs of the sector are highlighted. The sector employs a vast underclass of low-paid workers – proportionately, the biggest such sector in Western Europe – who represent the underside of the country’s admired economic success. As in other advanced economies, technological change and globalisation have weakened the bargaining position of workers in routine jobs. Research suggests that many others are also missing out on the benefits of the country’s robust economy. About 24% of all workers are in a ‘low-paid job’, defined as earning less than two-thirds of the median salary. In 2006, the low pay sector accounted for less than 19% of all workers.

English: http://www.ft.com/intl ...  

Focus on the environmental consequences:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/analysis-of-the-hidden-cost ...  

 

For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.

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