Press Release No. 30/2011 IG Metall Criticizes New Temporary Employment Association: “Not Committed to Fair Regulations for Temporary Workers...”

Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall has described temporary work as a dead end for workers and criticized the current campaign by the Federal Association of Personnel Service Providers (BAP). “Most of the roughly one million temporary workers are denied the career advancement they were promised,” said Detlef Wetzel, vice president of IG Metall, on Tuesday in Frankfurt. Experience shows that, despite the economic upswing, only seven percent of previously unemployed temporary workers are hired into permanent positions.

Anyone who expected positive momentum from the merger of the two temporary staffing employer associations will be disappointed. The BAP is presenting old wine in new bottles and attempting to distort the facts. “At the moment, we cannot see that the employers’ association for staffing agencies has a serious interest in fair regulations for temporary workers,” said Wetzel.

IG Metall is currently holding talks with temporary staffing associations regarding equal pay for temporary agency workers and permanent employees. If there is no movement on the part of employers regarding the principle of “equal pay for equal work” by fall, the issue will be incorporated into the collective bargaining round for the metal and electrical industries, Wetzel said.