Preconditions for successful implementation of the new minimum wage in Germany

Thorsten Schulten

It is just a few weeks since the minimum wage was introduced in Germany, but it is already becoming very clear that its implementation in practice really cannot be taken for granted. Scarcely a day goes by without the media reporting new minimum wage breaches. Online, meanwhile, law firms openly offer counselling on how to sidestep the minimum wage. And every day on the minimum wage hotline set up by the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), hundreds of employees tell of the sometimes highly devious attempts being made to do them out of the minimum wage.

Back in the autumn of last year, in a study commissioned by the Labour Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Hans Böckler Foundation’s Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI) was already asking questions about the preconditions for the successful implementation of minimum wages. It examined examples from other European countries (France, the UK and the Netherlands), as well as German experiences with regional and sectoral minimum wages, which have existed for quite some time.[1]  Basically, it identified five factors for success:

1. A precise and manageable definition of the minimum wage
2. Clear, checkable provisions on the relationship between the minimum wage and working times 
3. The existence of efficient monitoring institutions and processes 
4. Effective instruments for wage-earners to get their minimum wage entitlements applied 
5. The broadest possible social acceptance, including by large sections of business. 

We are Steaming Ahead: NUMSA’s Road to the Left

Karl Cloete

The expulsion of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in November 2014 was a watershed moment. It deepened further the crisis in the Alliance between the ANC, COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP). In addition to fighting for a radical shift amongst trade unions, NUMSA also played a major role in the establishment of a new United Front which will be launched in 2015.

In December 2014 Sam Ashman (SA) and Nicolas Pons-Vignon (NPV) interviewed Karl Cloete (KC) about a tumultuous year and the road ahead.

SA / NPV: Those who are not in South Africa may think that NUMSA is responsible for undermining COSATU and working class unity. How would you respond to this?

KC: When COSATU was established in 1985, NUMSA was in the centre of the unity talks. COSATU was a product of collective struggle and the federation shook the South African landscape under apartheid and played an important part in the 1994 democratic breakthrough. But COSATU, particularly over the last eight years, has almost totally shed its independence. It has become embroiled in factional politics within the ANC and the SACP. The COSATU that used to be a campaigning formation has become an organisation unable to take forward critical struggles – around precarious work, unemployment, the privatisation and commodification of services. We are challenging legally our expulsion and we have appealed for the convening of a COSATU Special National Congress (SNC). COSATU’s history is not something you walk away from easily.