Temporary workers in Germany should be paid the same wages as full-time workers, a senior conservative said on Sunday in comments that lend support for broad pay increases. Volker Kauder, parliamentary floor leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said a recent deal in the steel industry granting contract workers the same hourly wage as permanent staff should be copied elsewhere.
"The steel industry's wage agreements should provide a lesson to other sectors," he told the Hamburger Abendblatt daily in comments to be published on Monday.
German steel sector employers and labour unions averted threats of strikes last week by agreeing a 3.6 percent pay rise from October for 85,000 workers in the sector, including a deal for matching wages for part-time staff.