German unions are wary of reforms to jobless system

Later this month, just a few weeks before the German elections on 22 September, an official commission is expected to publish plans for major changes to the German system of unemployment benefit.

The main elements are likely to include:

* requiring the young single unemployed to take up job offers anywhere in Germany;

* cutting the level of unemployment benefit and the length of time that it is paid;

* requiring those unemployed for more than six months to accept temporary agency work; and

* giving the unemployed an electronic card containing their employment details and qualifications, with the aim of speeding up the process of matching vacancies and the unemployed.

Frank Bsirske, the president of the largest German union, Verdi, has attacked the proposals, saying that they "will play off the unemployed against the employed with a normal salary".

However, other union leaders have been more positive. Klaus Zwickel, president of IG Metall has stated, "someone who is young and has no family, must be prepared to move for a job, even across the country".

Faced with these varying views, the DGB union confederation, has been anxious not to condemn the proposals out of hand. Unions fear that if they are seen to be attacking proposals from the present government, this will play into the hands of the opposition, whose election platform calls for a much more radical approach.