The minimum wage should not apply to seasonal workers in agriculture. Reason: Foreigners in the industry earn even less in their home country.
afp/taz | The CDU apparently wants to make another attempt to exempt seasonal agricultural workers from the minimum wage. “The CDU in Germany is committed to ensuring that the minimum wage can be deviated from for seasonal workers in agriculture,” said a motion to the federal party conference in February in Stuttgart, the adoption of which is recommended, as is the case Rhenish Post reported.
The seasonal workers would only help during peak periods during the harvest and would not have full-time employment, the application said. “And secondly, the seasonal workers come from abroad, where an hourly wage below the minimum wage is also well above the local standards,” it continued. With lower wages, “even more seasonal workers could benefit.”
The farmers’ association has long been calling for a limit on the minimum wage for seasonal workers of 80 percent. Federal Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer (CSU) was also open to this, but this is probably not legally possible, according to the results of an audit in July.
The initiative at the time was met with resistance from the SPD. “It’s about the right of people to receive a poverty-level wage through gainful employment,” said SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf. “You can’t exclude seasonal workers.”
Despite the existing minimum wage, employing seasonal workers is already relatively cheap for employers: they do not have to pay social security contributions on their wages. The black-red coalition will only have the maximum length of employment for this exception in the fall increased from 70 to 90 working days.
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