Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention, 1928 (No. 26) - Germany (Ratification: 1929)

Articles 1 and 3 of the Convention. Minimum wage-fixing machinery. The Committee notes the latest development in minimum wage policy, in particular the setting of a minimum wage for temporary agency workers as from 1 January 2012, and the adoption of the 2009 amendment to the Minimum Working Conditions Law (Mindestarbeitsbedingungsgesetz) of 1951, which provides for the establishment of an independent tripartite committee that may fix minimum wage rates with respect to those branches of economy in which employers bound by applicable collective agreements employ less than 50 per cent of the total workforce in the branch in question. Once approved by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, these minimum wage rates become binding through a federal legislative ordinance. Moreover, new sections 16 and 18 of the Minimum Working Conditions Law provide for sanctions in case of non-payment of the applicable minimum wages, including the possible exclusion from public tendering and the imposition of administrative fines. While noting the Government’s indication that no minimum wage rates have yet been adopted under the amended Minimum Working Conditions Law, the Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress made in this respect.

In addition, the Committee understands that there is an ongoing debate on the possible introduction of a national minimum wage and that a proposal for the establishment of a bipartite committee composed of an equal number of employers’ and workers’ representatives, which could adopt minimum wage rates for those economic sectors in which no collective bargaining agreements are concluded, was discussed in parliament in January 2012. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any further developments in this regard.

Finally, the Committee notes the comments made by the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB), according to which the only way to effectively protect workers from poverty wages would be the introduction of a general statutory minimum wage of not less than €8.50 per hour which would guarantee a cross-sectoral wage threshold. The DGB indicates that, to date, minimum wage rates have only been adopted under the Posting of Workers Act, which nonetheless provides for minimum wage fixing only in eight specific branches, including construction, cleaning, mail services, mining and security services. The Committee requests the Government to submit any comments it may wish to make in reply to the observations of the DGB.