Union warns of mini-job losses in the hospitality industry 

Created: 03/21/2022, 10:37 am

The NGG union warns that mini-jobs in the hospitality industry could soon become even rarer in the Starnberg district.

© Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa

Starnberg - In the Starnberg district, the number of mini-jobs in hotels and restaurants has decreased significantly during the pandemic.

In the middle of last year, the hospitality industry in the district had around 1,600 jobs on a EUR 450 basis - that's 160 fewer than two years earlier (minus 9 percent).

This is pointed out by the Food, Enjoyment and Restaurants Union.

The NGG relies on figures from the Federal Employment Agency. 

450-euro workers are among the main losers of the pandemic.

From the kitchen help in the restaurant to the saleswoman at the bakery counter - many mini-jobbers live in constant fear of being fired.

They are not entitled to unemployment benefits or short-time work benefits," criticizes Tim Lünnemann, Managing Director of the NGG region in Munich.

The trade unionist warns that in the future even more people could slip into such insecure jobs and thus have to work under precarious conditions.

"If the federal government raises the earnings limit for mini-jobs, then that should displace many regular jobs.

For those affected, most of whom are women, this becomes a career trap.

And in old age at the latest, poverty is inevitable,” says Lünnemann.

According to the plans of the Berlin traffic light coalition, mini-jobbers should be able to earn 520 instead of 450 euros a month in the future - without, for example, automatically being insured for unemployment.

The union sharply criticizes the corresponding draft law, which the Bundestag will be discussing in the spring: “Politicians are continuing to expand precarious and crisis-prone positions instead of containing them.

This is a mistake - especially after the experiences with Corona.

Many mini-jobbers have looked in the tube during short-time work or lost their jobs.

The NGG refers to the coalition agreement.

In it, the SPD, Greens and FDP write that it must be prevented “that mini-jobs are misused as a substitute for regular employment or become a part-time trap”.

The union is therefore calling on the local members of the Bundestag in the traffic light coalition to keep this promise and “put the law on a solid footing”.

In the long term, however, only a fundamental reform can remedy the situation: for mini-jobs, social insurance must apply from the very first euro.

Employees can only be effectively protected if social security contributions, health, nursing care and pension insurance contributions are paid.

According to NGG regional manager Tim Lünnemann, this would have positive effects locally: "The abolition of the special regulations for mini-jobs would help to combat the shortage of skilled workers.

In the Starnberg district, hoteliers and innkeepers in particular are complaining that they can no longer find staff.

But you don't win specialists by offering jobs that are hardly secure with just a few hours per week, but by offering regular employment contracts with prospects and a social network.

In the end, everyone would benefit from this – the employees, the companies and, thanks to higher income, the state and social insurance.”

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