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Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU)
Photo: Jürgen Heinrich / imago images
Zoff in the grand coalition: Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) is mad at his SPD colleague Hubertus Heil.
The background to the anger is a bill from Heils Ministry of Labor, it is about the supply chain law.
The grand coalition announced an agreement on the project just last Friday.
In the future, companies should be obliged to enforce human rights with their suppliers abroad.
The law will initially apply to groups with more than 3,000 employees from 2023, and then also to companies with more than 1,000 employees from 2024.
But Altmaier is bothered by the implementation of the compromise.
His State Secretary Ulrich Nussbaum has now sent a fire letter to the Ministry of Labor.
The letter to Heil's State Secretary Björn Böhning is available to SPIEGEL.
In it, Nussbaum complains to "dear Björn" that he "unfortunately had to take note" that Böhning introduced the draft law "contrary to the discussed procedure" with a text "that was not agreed with me".
He is also surprised, according to Nussbaum, that Böhning "obviously wants to deal with associations and states before the departmental coordination is concluded."
He expressly contradicts this procedure, writes the State Secretary for Economic Affairs, "and also does not give my consent to the publication of the draft law on the homepage of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs".
The draft also does not correspond to the agreements of the top-level talks on February 11 in two points, Nussbaum added.
An adjustment is imperative.
Altmaier's State Secretary ends the letter with the sentence: "Against this background, I may once again express my dismay at your approach."
The Ministry of Labor is relaxed on request.
A spokesman announced that they had "taken note of the letter with interest."
The draft of the Supply Chain Act corresponds to "the agreement reached between the departments involved in the course of the last conversation."
According to the spokesman, it is believed "that the technical issues addressed in the letter can be conclusively clarified very quickly at the specialist level."
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