Low bids win in (German) job 'slave market'

[Up2Late]

(I hope the Bushies and RWer's don't hear about this)

Low bids win in job 'slave market'

Alex Duval Smith
Sunday April 3, 2005
The Observer

Imagine an auction where the lowest bidder wins. This is happening in Germany where the online sale is as controversial as it is successful because the 'lots' are people looking for employment. On jobdumping.de, they undercut one another to win work.

Founder Fabian Löw, 31, has provoked a torrent of anger from unions and politicians claiming his website is a 'slave market' where people are hired for as little as €3 (£2) an hour. The site is legal because Germany has no statutory minimum wage. "This country has higher unemployment than at any time since the Second World War - 12.5 per cent. Every eighth man or woman I meet in the street is without work, and the authorities are failing to find them jobs," said Löw, whose Münster-based firm has four staff and, not surprisingly, relies on "a lot of outsourcing".

The concept is simple: jobseekers - from office workers to cleaners - state the minimum pay they will accept. On a different page, employers advertise jobs naming the most they will pay. Buyers and sellers remain anonymous until the auction is over, and there is a trial period of four weeks before contracts are signed. We have a dog trainer offering pet-counselling for €30 a lesson. We also have economics graduates looking for work,' he said. 'If your tumble-dryer breaks down, why ring a firm that charges €80 for a call-out when qualified people will do the job for less?

Löw says he has held 3,300 auctions since last October, leading to work for 1,300 people. He takes a percentage of the first month's wage. But a Liberal party spokesman, Dirk Niebel, called the site "a slave market that is unprofessional". This claim was denied by Löw, who now plans an English-language international site - "useful for students looking for work in other countries".

[BadGimp]

1. Brilliant concept

Precisely what the internet can make possible.

I bet a months pay that this WILL land in the US and WILL be popular.

I am not interested in commenting personally on the social ramifications or the right & wonr issues. Frankly if a buck can be made this will go everywhere there is a job market.

[BRLIB]

2. So I can be a CEO for only 100 times what the average

Merikkkan makes, not 400x......?

Or, how about if they let investors be allowed to bid only a certain amount and the investor willing to accept the lowest return wins.....

[oscar111]

3. Will it accelerate a union-loving backlash?

and will that then Norwegize {norway} the entire world within five years?

[DivinBreuvage]

4. Old hat for the Germans

Are most of these workers Slavs?

[Dirk39]

7. New hat for the Germans:

Most of these slav(e)s are (german) workers!

Go figure....
Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[It was not a pretzel]

5. just to put Germany's unemployment rate

into perspective. Thatcherite Britain at it's darkest moment had 13% unemployment. Here in Germany it's 12.6% and RISING. Furthermore there are no signs of any change. After all the countries economy isn't doing bad, the corps are making record profits but continue to lay off workers to maximise the profit further.

Everyday for the past 12-15 years employers and politians have made threats to move their operations to the east where work is cheaper. As a result people here are willing to work for a pittance. Over the past 10 years wages for unqualified personel has fallen by 22%, in fact if I were to look for similar work as I had in 1989 to 1997 there's a good chance my hourly wage would be less than in 1992, and even then it low.

Meanwhile corporations are paying 25% less tax than they did in 1998, and when they've made everything deductable, pay actually less tax than they do would in Slovakia or Estonia. I say let them make true their threats, let other remaining do whats right and good for the people of Germany, and bloodsuckers are free to leave. That's not going to happen though, as politians continue to bend over backwards at every demand the corps make.

There's a race to the bottom going on, and Germany is damned determined to win it.

[Dirk39]

6. You're right!

Hello from Germany,
you did describe our situation perfectly. These are the benefits of our green-red corporation whores.

But I like BRLIB's post (Nr. 2).
We could offer some meals and gasoline to the soldiers in Iraq...
like Bechtel and Halliburton did.
But there's still no internet adress for these offerings. And there never was any other adress.

Dirk

[emad]

8. Low bids win in job 'slave market'

Alex Duval Smith
Sunday April 3, 2005
The Observer

Imagine an auction where the lowest bidder wins. This is happening in Germany where the online sale is as controversial as it is successful because the 'lots' are people looking for employment. On jobdumping.de, they undercut one another to win work.

Founder Fabian Löw, 31, has provoked a torrent of anger from unions and politicians claiming his website is a 'slave market' where people are hired for as little as €3 (£2) an hour. The site is legal because Germany has no statutory minimum wage.

'This country has higher unemployment than at any time since the Second World War - 12.5 per cent. Every eighth man or woman I meet in the street is without work, and the authorities are failing to find them jobs,' said Löw, whose Münster-based firm has four staff and, not surprisingly, relies on 'a lot of outsourcing'.

The concept is simple: jobseekers - from office workers to cleaners - state the minimum pay they will accept. On a different page, employers advertise jobs naming the most they will pay. Buyers and sellers remain anonymous until the auction is over, and there is a trial period of four weeks before contracts are signed.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1451111,00.html

[joefree1]

9. Globalization

Every chance I get I tell people about my experiences working in India. We could not import anything because of India's 67% import tax (USA has a 10% import tax). There was no controls on pollution, worker's rights (including child labor), or product safety. Yet every month the Indian newspapers gleefully announce more American jobs coming to India.:mad:


Download the free poster/bumper art here:
http://ediablo.com/eDiabloGallery.html

[Wapsie B]

10. Stop!

"There was no controls on pollution, worker's rights (including child labor), or product safety."

You're getting the repug lurkers sexually aroused at the thought. It's like nirvana to them. :evilgrin:

[jonnyo]

11. Governments don't "find people jobs".

the authorities are failing to find them jobs,

That is a perception that people seriously need to stop propagating. This is why labor, trade and tax reforms are so difficult to get across especially in the ocean of right wing propaganda we all have to swim through.

When the average uninformed and slightly unintellectual Joe Blow on the street hears someone say that, He thinks, "So what, find your own damn job. I got off my ass and found one and even though I HATE it, I still get up in the morning and go to it. I pay high taxes when I have lots of bills to pay and why should my taxes go to getting you some cush job somewhere." Then, this person sides with the bullshit spewed by neocons while his local economy gets stolen and he gets hosed, and all he remembers is the mental image of some Liberal wasting Government money trying to get a big pension for doing nothing but getting in the way, and the Neocons desparetly trying to improve America while lazy liberals get in the way. And, the Cons are very fucking good at manipulating this.

Governments do not create jobs. Governments, if the work correctly, can create level playing fields for business and industry where the average Joe can quit his crap job working for the man, start his own business and work for himself if he wants to. Governments create trade policy that protect the citizens against preditory financial practices. Governments administer tax policies that keep money in the hands of local economies, and they build, run, and maintain infrastructures so society can move ahead. They extract dues in the form of taxes from those that have utilized that society to enable their own personal wealth and feed those dues back into the system. The Reagan Revolution does NONE of these things.

Governments DO NOT GET PEOPLE JOBS.

[reorg]

12. what the guy probably meant

with "authorities" are the state sponsored job agencies (Arbeitsamt). If you receive unemployment benefits you are required to take any job they may have on offer, even if it is way below your job qualification or not within reach from your current residence. And yet, with 12 percent unemployment it is quite probable they have none whatsoever.

There are other agencies, but only for temp work. Nobody stops you to go look for a job yourself, of course. Or you can establish an "Ich-AG" (Ich = I - incorporated) where you are your own boss and no pesky union will make you raise your own wage!

http://ichag.vnr.de/

[joefree1]

13. Governments create both jobs and opportunities for companies

The neo-con death cult does a good job getting us to forget the huge advances of the New Deal under FDR. By getting Government to spend on public works he kick started the economy. Government created jobs. Workers had money to spend. Companies found new profits selling to those workers.

Here's a old joke for you:
After a long and bitter fight with Unions Henry Ford was taking the new Union boss on a tour of his factory. Ford pointed out a new machine to the Union man and said, "See that machine, it does the work of ten men." The Union guy looked at the machine and said, "Yeah, how many cars does it buy?"

[Up2Late]

14. I agree, and another thing a lot of folks don't realize about SS is...

...one of the ideas behind the SS program, was to put some money in the hands of the unemployed (not truly retired) elderly, back in the late 1930's, so they too could start spending money TO PUT MONEY back into the Economy.:think:

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I sounds like we are about 5 years behind Germany, but we are on the same road, racing to the bottom.

:rant:One difference, at least your media is reporting your TRUE unemployment rate, here in Georgia (U.S.A.), the State Government only reports the Unemployed persons for 6 months, when your UIC account runs out of money, you are not unemployed anymore, whether you found a job or not.

The Unemployment rate in Georgia is 5.3%, but in reality it's probably more like 12%.:rant: