Heil wants a complete ban
Temporary work should disappear from the meat industry
February 17, 2024, 3:00 p.m
Dilapidated accommodation and too little pay: catastrophic conditions have long prevailed in many German slaughterhouses. Since 2021, temporary work has been banned in large parts of the meat industry. According to Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, the last exception rule is set to expire in April.
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil is calling for a complete ban on temporary work in the meat industry. He announced in the newspapers of the Funke media group that an exemption for, among other things, smaller companies would expire on April 1st. “Temporary work will completely disappear from slaughterhouses,” he emphasized.
The black-red coalition at the time banned work contracts in the meat industry on January 1, 2021, followed on April 1 of the same year by the ban on temporary work in the core areas of the meat industry: slaughtering, cutting and processing. An exception limited to three years still applies to craft businesses with fewer than 50 employees and to collective agreements “to cover seasonal order peaks” in meat processing. Heil is now letting this expire.
“I’m glad that we now have much more decent working conditions,” said the minister about the result of the bans. These would have “remedied the structural grievances”. This is also proven by a scientific study commissioned by the Ministry of Labor, which is now available.
“We cleaned up here”
In the core area of the meat industry, employees are now employed directly by the slaughterhouses and no longer by subcontractors. The SPD minister recalled the conditions before the ban on temporary work: “People from Central and Eastern Europe were exploited as slave labor in German meat factories,” he said. “They slept in shabby accommodation, they were cheated out of their wages, and regulations regarding working hours were not adhered to.” Heil emphasized: “We have cleaned up here.”
The minister expressed reservations about extending the ban on temporary work and work contracts to other sectors. “You have to look closely in every industry. But the very sharp sword of a ban on contract work and temporary work must also be able to stand up in the courts,” he said. It is important to take proportionate and effective measures.