Lukas Krämer worked in a workshop for people with disabilities for five years, checking fittings for taps six hours a day. Workshop employees in Germany receive an average of EUR 200 per month, which corresponds to an hourly wage of EUR 1.35. Kramer thinks this is unfair. “You can’t live on that money, it’s a starvation wage,” he says on the phone. That’s why he started the petition #StelltUnsEin: for the minimum wage, for employment in an employee relationship, for more justice. Around 130,000 people have already signed. But would the introduction of the minimum wage really improve the situation for workshop employees?
In Germany there are over 2,900 facilities for disabled people, and more than 320,000 adults are employed here. The pay debate is not entirely new; it has been passionate and emotional for many years. It’s about justice and inclusion, the definition and value of work, how we want to live as a society. The workshops should not only promote inclusion in the general labor market, they are also companies that have to generate income.
Lukas Krämer has started a petition that more than 130,000 people have already signed.
(Photo: Anne-Sophie Stolz / Aktion Mensch)
This is where things get complex: the workshops pay a wage made up of a basic amount of at least 99 euros per month and an individual increase. Both are financed from the economic activity of the workshops. In addition, there is a tax-financed employment subsidy, which is currently 52 euros. This is opaque and difficult to understand for the employees. And mostly too little, many need additional financial support such as basic security. Reik Lehmann sees the workshops wrongly in the criticism: “They are publicly made guilty of the situation and political guidelines that they cannot influence.” Lehmann is the workshop manager of the Berlin dolphin workshops. He has been working in this area for 22 years and has advised the SPD in the current coalition negotiations. Lehmann is also in favor of a reform of the system, but points out that employees would be entitled to less basic social security if wages rose. The workshops, on the other hand, would have great problems generating the necessary amounts.
The Berlin mosaic workshops for the disabled have calculated the increase in the basic amount already decided by the federal government and came to an additional charge of 500,000 euros. Some workshops would even have to close as a result of additional work pressure, fear the workshop councils in Germany, which represent the employees. In addition, the work pressure would increase considerably, since all employees would have to earn the high wages themselves.
(Re) integration into the general labor market is extremely rare
The minimum wage is also only intended for employees. The employees in workshops for the disabled, on the other hand, only have an employee-like status, which is linked to protective rights such as a job guarantee, no performance obligation and practical non-termination. The great variety of different impairments also makes it more difficult to find a good solution. The tasks of the workshops meanwhile also include helping their employees to (re) enter the general labor market.
“The change from the workshop to the labor market still takes place too seldom,” says the Federal Association of Workshops for Disabled People and explains: “In the workshop, by definition, people work who do not, not yet or not yet again under the conditions of the general labor market can work, which means that they are permanently disabled. ” It is estimated that (re) integration into the labor market is only successful for around one percent. But workshop manager Lehmann contradicts: “We mediate a lot more than one percent, but unfortunately most of them come back to us.” Pressure to perform and expectations are often simply too high.
The workshop councils also criticize the fact that the free economy is not ready to accept people with disabilities and, at the same time, is often not a place where people with lower productivity feel comfortable. Another problem is the so-called equalization charge. According to this, companies with more than 20 jobs have to fill five percent of them with severely disabled people. If they do not, they have to pay financial compensation, which ensures that many “buy themselves out”, so to speak.
When it comes to inclusion, the election programs hardly provide any concrete suggestions
The Ministry of Labor has also taken on the topic and started a study in 2020 that is intended to produce a transparent, sustainable and future-proof remuneration system. A first interim report was published at the end of October. According to the analysis, the remuneration has even decreased over the years: While the national average monthly wage increased from 223.58 euros in 2017 to 228.86 euros in 2018, it fell to 220.28 euros in 2019. There are three approaches for fair wages: to increase the employment subsidy, which among other things the Union parliamentary group advocates to rely on a so-called “base money”, as suggested by the workshop councils, or to introduce a general statutory minimum wage, for which Lukas Krämer, for example, advocates. In the next step, the workshop managers and their employees are to be interviewed. The Ministry of Labor would like to present its final report by mid-2023.
A lot was said about social justice in the election campaign, and inclusion was also an issue. But what would a traffic light coalition really change? More or less concrete approaches can be found in all election programs. “We are committed to creating a single point of contact for employers in small and medium-sized companies who can advise on issues such as accessibility or wage subsidies,” says the SPD. The FDP finds that the workshop employees represent “a large and insufficiently considered potential for the primary labor market”.
The Green MP Corinna Rüffer was not only the spokeswoman for disability policy, but is now also the boss of Lukas Krämer, who supports her in social media work. Rüffer observes the workshops with concern: “Over time it becomes more and more anachronistic: There are more employees, the transition becomes more difficult and the workshops find it more difficult to operate competitively.” You are under immense pressure. Rüffer also thinks that the workshop wage should not stay that way, “but the debate about the minimum wage falls short.” The next federal government must now set the right course, the complex system must be “unraveled and fundamentally reformed”. “If there is no improvement in this constellation, then the disappointment is very, very big.”