The temporary employment industry and the trade unions are looking forward to Erfurt: What is the opinion of the federal labor court there on the temporary agency work wage agreements? The verdict could have explosive force.
The Federal Labor Court decides on Wednesday whether temporary workers should be treated equally with the core workforce. The collective agreements in the industry are being put to the test.
It is about the legitimacy of collective bargaining disadvantages in the payment of temporary workers compared to permanent employees. The case of a temporary worker from Bavaria is before the top labor judges.
According to the Federal Labor Court, the plaintiff received around a third less hourly wages than the regular employees in the company. This was possible because her temporary work agency paid according to a collective agreement. The principle of equal treatment may be deviated from by collective agreement. But the question is under what conditions these collective bargaining deviations can take place, said the spokesman for the Federal Labor Court, Oliver Klose.
Respect for total protection
The Federal Labor Court had therefore referred the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The answer from Luxembourg came last December: According to this, temporary workers can only be paid less if this unequal treatment is compensated for in the collective agreement. So if a collective agreement provides for a lower wage for contract workers, they must be given other significant benefits in return – such as additional time off. It is about respecting the so-called overall protection.
The ECJ only made very vague specifications as to what that meant, said Klose. The Federal Labor Court must now clarify what that means specifically for the tariff model in the industry. However, among labor law experts, it is very questionable whether the Federal Labor Court will completely overturn the current collective agreements and thus all temporary workers would be entitled to the same wages as the permanent workers. It would also be possible to make only one decision relating to temporary agency workers. In addition, the ECJ had declared that the examination involved individual decisions.
Around two percent of all employees in temporary work
According to the trade unions and employers’ associations, there are currently almost 800,000 temporary workers in Germany. That is around two percent of all employees. Collective bargaining agreements, which the Association of German Temporary Employment Agencies (iGZ) and the Federal Employers’ Association of Personnel Service Providers (BAP) have concluded with the DGB trade unions, apply to almost the entire industry.
The employment lawyer Wolfgang Hamann from the University of Duisburg-Essen therefore speaks of a “practice-relevant judgement”. The business model of the temporary employment industry is based on making workers cheaper. The differences in wages compared to the permanent workforce are sometimes considerable and amount to between 24 and 30 percent. “But I don’t see any adequate compensation for this difference in pay in the collective agreements,” says Hamann.
Source: Stern
