The German employers threaten a lawsuit against the increase in the minimum wage

Berlin, Dec 30 – The German employers’ association Gesamtmetall has threatened to file a lawsuit against the increase, by law, of the minimum interprofessional wage from the current 9.60 euros per hour to 12 euros, considering that this is undermining against the autonomy of labor agreements.

“Our problem is the way towards it. As the Government raises it, I consider it a violation of the autonomy of labor agreements,” said the president of the German employers’ association for the metallurgical and electrotechnical sectors, Rainer Dulger in statements that the magazine “Der Spiegel”.
Germany only introduced an interprofessional minimum wage in the last legislature when it was entrusted to an independent commission, with representation from employers, unions and experts,

According to the itinerary drawn up by that commission, the minimum wage should rise to 9.82 euros per hour on January 1 and to 10.45 euros per hour on July 1.

However, the Minister of Labor, Hubertus Heil, has proposed to make a single increase, by law, up to 12 euros next year.
That law was described by Dulger as a violation of the promise that the independent commission would be in charge of the amount of the minimum wage and not the government.

“Whether we take legal steps and when and how we do it depends on when the hike is going to be imposed,” Dulger said.
Raising the interprofessional minimum wage to 12 hours per hour was one of the central promises of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s campaign.
The increase is estimated to favor 8.6 million workers.

The government parties, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Liberal Party (FDP), determined in their coalition agreement that after the increase to 12 euros, the issue of the minimum wage would be returned to the commission.
Dulger stressed that the problem is not the 12 euros per hour but the violation of the autonomy of labor agreements and the minimum wage commission.

“The commission does not make sense if the policy says that now the minimum wage is raised to so much and then the commission can go back to work,” Dulger said.