Press Release No. 15/2010 IG Metall Launches Temporary Work Initiative “Equal Work – Equal Pay”

Berlin – IG Metall aims to bring about changes in politics and the business world by sparking a public debate on limiting and regulating temporary work. “The goal of our initiative is to forge an alliance that extends far beyond our union structures and advocates for fair conditions in temporary work,” said IG Metall’s Second Chairman, Detlef Wetzel, on Tuesday in Berlin. “A representative survey conducted by TNS Infratest Politikforschung confirms that we can rely on broad public support for this,” Wetzel emphasized.

According to the survey, an overwhelming majority of respondents oppose temporary agency work. 85 percent believe that temporary agency work leads to wage dumping, and 78 percent fear that it displaces permanent jobs. Just as many consider temporary agency work to be “a modern form of exploitation.” Also noteworthy is the broad agreement with this statement among supporters of the CDU/CSU and FDP (68 and 84 percent, respectively). A strong majority is calling on policymakers to enact legal regulations to curb temporary agency work and to ensure equal pay for equal work. “The federal government must not continue to turn a blind eye to this majority: We need a legal framework that protects people in temporary agency work from abuse, limits the duration of such work, and ensures fair working conditions and fair pay,” Wetzel urged.

The core political demand of the initiative, under the patronage of former Labor Ministers Dr. Norbert Blüm, Dr. Herbert Ehrenberg, and Walter Riester, is the immediate transposition of the EU Temporary Agency Work Directive into national law.
“The Temporary Employment Act has failed and violates European law. The EU directive, on the other hand, provides for significantly improved protection for temporary agency workers. We therefore call on the federal government to transpose it into German law without delay,” said Wetzel.