Der Mindestlohn in der Fleischwirtschaft

The German meat processing industry has long been known for its high share of precarious employment. In fact, the sector has seen a massive shift to workers employed by subcontracting companies. Most of the employees are posted workers from Eastern Europe, often working in deplorable conditions. Points of criticism are wage dumping of less than 5 € per hour, regular overtime as well as unjustified wage deductions for accommodation and work materials provided by the meat processing companies. Since 2013, after years of public pressure, there have been several initiatives to improve working conditions. The most important issue was the introduction of an industry-wide minimum wage in August 2014. Moreover, leading companies agreed upon additional improvements of working conditions – albeit solely on a voluntary basis. On 1 June 2017, the German Bundestag (lower house of the German parliament) agreed on several legal changes, which might substantially improve the working conditions in the meat processing sector. Based on interviews with industry representatives, the article describes the current status of the implementation of the industry-wide minimum wage and analyses remaining loopholes to circumvent minimum standards in practice.