The debate about the wage conditions for employees of church institutions does not stop: Many employees of the Diakonie can no longer live on their income and have to apply for Hartz IV in addition, reports the ARD political magazine "Report Mainz" today on "Ersten".
In response to the magazine's question of whether it is Christian and just to employ people in such a way that they can no longer live on their salaries, the president of the Diakonie Bundesverband, Klaus-Dieter Kottnik, replied, according to advance reports from Sudwestrundfunk (SWR): "The alternative would be, and this is the conflict of conscience, to say we don't do the work at all anymore, we give it up."According to SWR, Kottnik denied that there was systematic social dumping. Nevertheless, he demanded more money from politics for the social system.He considers the discussion about minimum wages in the care sector to be a "diversionary tactic". The real problem, he said, is "that the payers are no longer willing to take into account the valid collective agreements in their care rates.". What is needed is "more adequate funding," said the president of the Diakonie. The contribution increase decided with the care reform to the 1. July around 0,25 per cent points is not sufficient. "If we want to have good personnel, we must also pay them accordingly. This problem will not be solved by minimum wages."Report", on the other hand, quotes Wolfgang Lindenmaier, employee representative in the nationwide labor law commission of the Diakonie, who accuses the churches of deliberately driving down the wage spiral. The two churches have relatively great political influence, but do not use this and their market leadership in the social sector to obtain reasonable wages. They used their power only to enforce dumping wages. "The whole world is upset about Lidl and Aldi. Church is worse," Lindenmaier told "Report".
Conflict on the subject of minimum wages in care
Within the church welfare associations, there had been a conflict last week on the subject of minimum wages in nursing care. The leaders of Diakonie and Caritas clearly distanced themselves from important sponsoring organizations of charitable and diaconal clinics and homes.The German Caritas Association and the Protestant Diakonie emphasized that in their facilities every nurse is paid more than the legal minimum wage. At the same time, they emphasized that they were not currently opposed to statutory minimum wages. Previously, the Association of Charitable Enterprises (AcU) and the Association of Diaconal Employers in Germany (VdDD) had voted strongly against statutory minimum wages in their institutions. They are an inadmissible national interference into the self-determination right of the churches.Caritas President Prelate Peter Neher emphasized that the institutions of his association pay nursing staff wages "far above all minimum wages currently under discussion". Kottnik said that a general statutory minimum wage would be viewed positively on the part of his association. The Diakonie generally advocates that it should be possible for a single person to support himself or herself with an earned income, even in low-skilled work.