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Dumped wages, reduced accommodation, 16-hour shifts – questionable working conditions in the meat industry have become a health problem in the pandemic. Now the Bundestag has intervened.
Working conditions in the meat industry have long been considered problematic. Conditions, sometimes precarious, have become apparent in recent months due to larger crown outbreaks at various slaughterhouses, and politicians have been forced to act:
The Bundestag has now passed stricter regulations for the meat industry. Starting next year, the use of subcontractors with low-wage workers from Eastern Europe will be banned. “We are thoroughly cleaning up the meat industry because it is about the human dignity of employees,” said Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD).
No more temporary work and employment contracts
If, after the Bundestag on Friday, the Bundesrat also approves it, there will be a ban on employment and service contracts in industry from 1 January. Unlike in the past, subcontractors will no longer be able to work in slaughterhouses. This is aimed at countering the widespread practice of hiring low-paid workers from Eastern Europe through other subcontractors for often miserable living and working conditions.
It is said that in the past there were cases in which the workers of a single slaughterhouse were employed by up to 30 different contractors. So that the meat industry does not switch to temporary work, this will also be prohibited from April 1.
End of the “irresponsible business model”
Uniform control standards and higher fines are also planned. Electronic recording of working hours is becoming mandatory in the meat industry. Violations, for example against the maximum working day, threaten fines of up to 30,000 euros.
Clear protection rules are also established for the accommodation of staff in collective accommodation. The deputy director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, ensured comprehensive control of the measures taken. The law ends with an “irresponsible business model.”
Criticism of the lagoons
However, the law provides far-reaching exceptions: business associations had urged this. Manufacturers of medium-sized sausages and meat products can absorb the spikes in orders, for example, in the barbecue season, through temporary workers. This temporary special regulation should apply for another three years, under strict conditions and only in meat processing, not in slaughter and cutting.
In addition to the grand coalition, the left and the Greens also voted in favor of the law, because they see the ban on employment contracts and loans as a step in the right direction. At the same time, they accused the CDU and CSU of giving in to the meat industry and criticizing the new regulation as insufficient. The AfD and the FDP, however, go too far with regulations. They fear the end of many medium-sized meat companies and therefore voted against the law.
The Food-Gourmet-Gaststätten (NGG) union welcomed the Labor Minister Heil law as a “historic milestone” for the meat industry. NGG President Guido Zeitler said: “Now there is a possibility to reorganize the industry.”
The meat industry, on the other hand, had vigorously protested the stricter regulations beforehand.
