Press Release No. 69/2015 IG Metall: Draft bill on service contracts and temporary agency work is insufficient

Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall has assessed the draft bill on service contracts and temporary agency work as “insufficient.” “In particular, the proposals to combat the misuse of service contracts are half-hearted and completely insufficient to counter wage-dumping strategies,” said Jörg Hofmann, President of IG Metall, on Tuesday in Frankfurt. The co-determination rights of works councils would only be expanded to an insufficient extent. “This clearly falls short,” said Hofmann.

The IG Metall chairman viewed it as a positive development that, according to the draft, workers under contracts for work and services can no longer be “reclassified” as temporary agency workers during an ongoing assignment. He also noted as positive that the criteria developed through case law to distinguish between contracts for work and services and solo self-employment are to be incorporated into the law.

In contrast, IG Metall criticizes the legislature for failing to set a limit on the long-term filling of positions with temporary agency workers. “Setting maximum assignment periods at best regulates the ‘traveling circus’ that temporary workers must endure as they are shuffled from one user company to another. It addresses neither their desire to be permanently hired by the user company nor the abuse of temporary work when jobs are permanently filled by temporary workers.”

IG Metall views it as a positive development that deviating regulations can only be established through collective bargaining agreements. “This allows us to continue collective bargaining provisions that include, for example, an obligation on the part of the user company to hire temporary workers permanently,” said Hofmann.

IG Metall also welcomes the proposal to enable a gradual transition toward equal pay through industry-specific premium regulations. “The law alone would only reinforce the ‘revolving door’ effect of deregistering temporary workers before the ninth month. This provision allowing for collective bargaining enables the continuation of existing sectoral premium collective bargaining agreements and requires, within the framework of these agreements, that by the twelfth month, pay be achieved that corresponds to comparable collective bargaining pay in the sector where the worker is assigned,” said Hofmann.