Germany Closer to Postal Worker Minimum Wage, SPD's Beck Say

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... er=germany

By Rainer Buergin

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Kurt Beck, leader of Germany's Social Democrats, said the government was close to agreeing on minimum wages for letter carriers, after the ruling coalition parties narrowed their differences at a late-night meeting yesterday.

``We assume that the minimum wage for postal workers will be agreed next Monday,'' Nov. 12, when coalition leaders resume policy talks, Beck told reporters in Berlin today. ``A few questions still need to be answered, but these are questions of detail and not fundamental in character.''

Companies whose main business is mail delivery will likely be compelled to pay a sector-specific minimum wage from Jan. 1, 2008, the coalition agreed yesterday. ``Very marginal or sporadic'' mail delivery would not be included, Beck said. Minimum wages currently apply only to the building industry and to some cleaners.

A statutory minimum wage may be good news for Deutsche Post AG, Europe's largest postal service, which loses its letter- delivery monopoly at the end of this year. The company forecast the introduction of domestic competition will trim earnings at its mail division by as much as 20 percent by 2009. The minimum wage would also apply to competitors such as Pin AG.

An agreement on minimum pay would remove one area of policy discord souring relations within Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition in the run-up to state elections next year.

The Social Democrats, Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, also narrowed their positions on extending unemployment benefits for older workers, Beck said.

The Social Democrats want to extend more generous jobless payments to people aged 45 and over to as long as 24 months from 12 months at present, an issue that Beck championed at his party convention Oct. 26-28 in the face of business opposition.

The SPD wants 1 billion euros ($1.45 billion) per year to be made available for payments to older workers in the labor agency's budget, Beck said, adding his party rules out cutting payments to the younger unemployed to help pay for the change.

Ronald Pofalla, general secretary of the Christian Democrats, said today that the changes must be ``cost neutral.''

``When both sides in the coalition have the will to extend'' jobless benefits, ``I see a good basis for a solution to be found on Nov. 12,'' he told reporters in Berlin today.

[Wild Cat]

Does anyone know what is the minimum wage per hour in Germany?

[blackadder]

about 3 sausages and a vundabar i guess. i got a tom tom in germany once, only showed me the way to poland