Force employers to provide permanent contracts after 1.5 years
BERLIN (Reuters) — Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and their Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners have agreed on plans to force employers to give temporary workers permanent contracts after one-and-a-half years, ending months of wrangling over the issue.
The new rules, which also make it mandatory for employers to give temporary workers the same salaries as their permanent peers after nine months, would benefit the one million workers on limited contracts and is a victory for the centre-left SPD.
Employers can under current rules offer limited contracts of up to two years, after which they must decide whether to terminate the contracts or offer employees permanent jobs.
The Bundestag lower house of parliament will vote on the new amendments to the labor law in the summer and they will go into effect next year
