Little progress on Alliance for Jobs

Germany's tripartite discussions on employment between the unions, government and the employers made little progress when the three sides again came together last month. This is the third time the parties have met since the process was initiated by Germany's chancellor Gerhard Schröder after his election victory in the autumn of 1998. At the time Schröder said he wanted make the Alliance "the centre point of the work of his government" in a bid to cut substantially the number of employed from its current level of around 3.9m. However, although the parties reached agreement on new training places at their meeting in the summer, agreement since then has been hard to find. While the unions are calling for retirement at 60 (see December 1999 Labour Research, page 8), the employers are now arguing that Germany should go back to the 40-hour week. Only in limited areas, such as a pilot scheme for giving state support to low-paid workers, has any sort of agreement been possible.