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Firms to be paid to take on long-term jobless

Published: 23 Nov 12 11:15 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20121123-46345.html

German companies should receive a subsidy if they take on the long-term unemployed, state governments are set to propose on Friday. Up to 75 percent of the new salary should be paid by the state, if necessary for several years.

As many as 200,000 people across Germany could get a job via the new scheme, the Brandenburg Labour Ministry estimated. It is to present the idea - along with five other states - to the upper house of the German parliament on Friday, the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper reported.

The state's Labour Minister Günter Baaske said the idea was to unify the many different subsidy programmes for the long-term unemployed.

"We want to finance work, not unemployment," he said. "We want to find a way to get the long-term unemployed back into work, instead of parking them in meaningless occupation measures."

The proposal would see companies receive the wage subsidy if they employ someone who "cannot be found regular employment in the foreseeable future," and who has been out of work for two years or more.

If necessary, the subsidy would run for up to five years. The workers would be paid according to union tariffs, and receive a "location-typical" wage. Baaske also said people would not be forced to take the job. "It must be on a voluntary basis," he said. "Only then can people be motivated."

But the minister also acknowledged the need to avoid one potential pitfall at all costs - companies sacking their workers to take on the state-subsidized unemployed.

The concern was voiced by labour market expert Karl Brenke of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). "Why should a removal firm take on someone the usual way if it gets a subsidy for taking someone who was long-term unemployed?" he asked.

Even the German employers' association BDA rejected the idea. "It feeds the illusion that there is a policy alternative to a job on the job market," a spokesman said.

The Brandenburg state government countered by pointing out that more than a million Germans had been registered unemployed for more than a year. "We can't abandon these people," he said.

Meanwhile, an employment agency in Dortmund has started offering cash bonuses for any unemployed people who take a job. Flyers in the "Job Center" promised "Every acceptance of work is rewarded with €200," the Bild newspaper reported on Friday.

The Federal Employment Agency criticized the scheme, saying it was "at the limit of what the law allows." Spokesman John-Philip Hammersen said people living on the unemployment benefit known as Hartz IV were legally obliged to take any offer of work.

The Local/bk

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

12:46 November 23, 2012 by Zubair Khan
An other pandora box in opening.
14:16 November 23, 2012 by raandy
They had and maybe still have this program in the US, I remember it in the early 80s. I worked for a firm that employed these long term unemployed. They soon found out why they were long term unemployed, and went back to there old hiring policies.
17:39 November 23, 2012 by Berlin fuer alles
Could be worthwhile companies firing employees with long term contracts to avail of this. They can rehire them in a couple of years time for cheap anyway.
22:32 November 23, 2012 by vossy
They currently do this in the UK, they pay big companies to take people on temporary, you do not get paid for this work, only your unemployment benefit, they also take you off the unemployment list, also if you are unemployed for 3 months they stop the unemployment allowance too and then take you off the jobless figures to make them look good in the press, there are in reality 4 million plus unemployed people here now, the government do not want to pay and unemployment at all, they are also stopping people claiming for being disabled - the UK is a joke, the only people who can claim money here are immigrants and asylum seekers. It is a disgrace.. shame on you UK!
15:12 November 24, 2012 by ovalle3.14
Although many are unemployed due to adverse circumstances often hard to control, as long as there's free money people will take it, how many social workers does it take to realise that?

Why not reduce benefits progressively? So that after 5 years you seriously get a job or... get a job. Another idea could be to make Sunday a business day.
09:08 November 25, 2012 by Englishted
@ ovalle3.14

Merry Christmas Mr Scrooge,

Where on earth do you live? Companies are already not taking on "real" workers they are using agencies to avoid holiday,sick,redundancy,and Christmas pay .

All this will do is save them the agency fees.

I was sent to a firm by the unemployment office on a trial once there unemployment stopped after 6 weeks the firm told me they had no money and could not pay us (there were two of us ) all we had done was renovate the boss'

s house the unemployment office said we were working so not their problem ,our only option was to take him to court at our own costs, not possible after have no money for 6 weeks.

So if you have ever dealt with the unemployment office you would understand how open to abuse this system could be and you would understand the frustration of the man who went crazy there not long ago.
10:10 November 25, 2012 by Berlin fuer alles
You hit the nail on the head there Englisted. This system is a self abusing prophecy. How could it be any other way? Why hire someone with a proper employment contract when you can get paid to take someone on instead. Then why keep this person you get paid to take on when you can fire them and take on another one of them and get paid.

I don't agree with the guy who killed a job centre employee but can understand how it can happen. I just wonder why it does not happen more often. I am sure if I was in Englisted's position I would have given serious consideration to taking a sledgehammer out to his bosses intererior and doing some real renovating.

By the way, job centre employees still need to go to 'Charm School' to learn that their clients are human. This system is sick. Glad I am not part of it any more. It is good to look on from outside the goldfish bowl now and watch Dr. Merkyl and Mr. Hyde along with her government fly in ever decreasing circles until they fly up their own ass.
13:32 November 25, 2012 by Englishted
@ Berlin fuer alles

I did consider not only hammering the interior but also the man himself as he knew what he was doing when he approached the job centre ,however he had bought himself a bullmastiff dog and going through that to get to him was a little too dangerous .

But as they say goes around comes around and one day I will see his out and about alone .
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