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by pluma
3013 days ago
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I'm not a CDU[1] voter by far but the Schröder government really screwed this one up by trying to "modernize" labor laws. When I started out freelancing I thought consulting agencies were actually viable so I applied to various projects posted by them. Every single time I ended up turning them down because the contracts they'd send me would effectively mean I'd no longer be able to seek clients myself out of the fear of violating the non-compete clause (unless I'd always ask every client "have you recently signed a contract with this consulting agency") yet I'd have no guarantee of actually winning the contract, they'd take a massive cut of my hourly rate, they'd force me to accept payment deadlines of up to three months (my normal limit was 14 days) but I'd effectively get none of the benefits of a regular employee other than having them as a mediator (assuming they'd ever not side with the client). Being a software developer I was able to reject those offers and instead seek out clients myself. But for many people in less fortunate skillsets this is the kind of crap they have to put up with, especially with companies offloading more and more of their workforce into these agencies to make it easier to hire & fire people as needed. Because they're not regular employees and union contracts and salary laws don't apply, many of them earn well below minimum wage (if they can find contracts at all) and need welfare to "top up" to the same level as someone without a job at all. A lot of the laws at the time needed fixing but this was a blatant attempt to reduce the unemployment stats without actually helping people. I'd say because it actively obscures the issue without solving it it has actually things worse for the people affected. [1]: The two major parties in Germany are the left-of-center SPD and the conservative centrist/right party CDU. The current chancellor, Merkel, is a member of the CDU and the government consists of a coalition between the CDU and SPD. The government that passed the labor and welfare reforms consisted of a coalition between the SPD and the Greens, with the chancellor Schröder being a member of the SPD. Many had voted for the SPD at the time hoping for a more left-leaning government, which eventually resulted in a mass exodus of SPD members forming their own minor party which eventually joined the far left party "Die Linke" (the left). |
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