On 19 August, IG Metall Vice President Detlef Wetzel called on political leaders to ensure that priority is given to employment in secure, regular employment as the economy recovers and that use of agency labour is limited and based on equal pay for equal work.
The union's demands were backed by the results of the study "Changes in the use of agency labour", conducted by the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and released on the same day, finding that enterprises are increasingly using agency labour in order to pass on business risks to workers.
Also, figures released by the Federal Office of Statistics showed that the share of German workers in regular, secure jobs with social benefits and working more than 20 hours a week fell from 73% in 1998 to 66% in 2008.
IG Metall demands a return to secure jobs at www.imfmetal.org
Leiharbeit ist Instrument zur Profitsteigerung at www.igmetall.de