position:personnel director

  • Ten years since Germany’s Hartz IV labor reform

    http://wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/hart-a27.shtml

    By Sybille Fuchs
    27 August 2012

    On August 16, 2002 a panel of experts headed by Volkswagen personnel director Peter Hartz presented their proposals for labour market reform to the Social Democratic Party-Green Party coalition government led by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD). Ten years later, German society has been transformed in large part due to the Hartz reforms.

    An OECD study published late last year concluded that income inequality has increased faster in Germany than in virtually any other member country.

    Ten years ago, the German economy was pilloried for paying excessive wages, possessing a rigid labour market and a social system that was much too generous. The problem confronting the German government was how to make changes to labour contract and social agreements won by workers over the course of decades without provoking substantial resistance. The government chose a different path.

    #travail #emploi #casse-sociale #allemagne