* DIS AG welcomes federal cabinet’s decision regarding Posting of Workers Act (German ‘Entsendegesetz’)
* This will effectively prevent wage and social ‘dumping’
* Quick implementation of legal process is required
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Düsseldorf, July 17, 2008 – DIS AG, the market leader in hiring and placement of skilled personnel and managers, welcomes the compromise regarding the Posting of Workers Act adopted by the federal cabinet after months of disagreement between CDU and SPD. “The amendment to the Act, which was decided by the federal cabinet, provides the basis on which additional industries will be able to introduce minimum wages”, says Andreas Dinges, Chairman of the Board of DIS AG. “On the basis of this decision, the principle of temporary employment will doubtlessly be added into the Posting of Workers Act without any problem.”
Temporary employment is one of the industries with a minimum of 50 percent wage bargaining coverage, where the parties to a collective wage agreement have filed a petition to include these industries into the Posting of Workers Act. This inclusion was however not the subject of the cabinet’s decision. A decision on the subject will later be made by a coalition work group, under the leadership of the federal employment minister Olaf Scholz. “Of course we would have preferred a quick decision,” said Dinges. “But with the compromise presented by the cabinet in case of conflicting collective wage agreements like in the temporary employment sector, at least an important hurdle on the way to integration has been removed.”
This compromise provides that in case of conflicting collective wage agreements, the legislator will have to weigh relevant assets with particular care, e.g. wage autonomy, and will have to find a moderate balance for conflicting interests of Basic Law. “Thus formulated, a minimum wage contract will become reality for temporary employment as well, which will prevent social and wage dumping, while people will be able to support themselves on the basis of their own income”, explains Dinges. As a specialist for the hiring and placement of skilled personnel and managers, DIS AG operates within the upper wage segment, and pays accordingly market rate salaries as well as wages above the general pay scale. “We do however approve of and support minimum wages for this sector for social reasons”. It is now important, says Dinges finally, to make decisions on the amendment quickly, in order for temporary employment to take its place with the Posting of Workers Act.
DIS AG is one of the six biggest personnel service providers in Germany. As the market leader in hiring and placement of skilled personnel and managers, they have specialised in the segments Finance, Industry, Information Technology, Office & Management and Outsourcing & Consulting. The subsidiaries euro engineering AG (100%), euro engineering AEROSPACE GMBH (100%) and encad GmbH (100%) are offering engineering services for the engineering industry.
About 10,000 employees in 176 branch offices are working for DIS AG. Other companies belonging to the DIS AG corporate group are: DIS Consulting GmbH (100%), DIS Deutscher Industrie Service AG Österreich (100%), DIS Interim Management GmbH (100%) and Personal Innovation GmbH (100%). Following a survey conducted by the magazine Capital, DIS AG places among the “Best German Employers 2008”.
Please contact:
DIS Deutscher Industrie Service AG
Andreas Lehmann
Public Relations Officer
Niederkasseler Lohweg 18
40547 Düsseldorf
Phone: 0211 – 530653 – 759
E-mail: a-lehmann@dis-ag.com
