It was a groundbreaking verdict and caused a stir: at the end of June, the Federal Labor Court announced that caregivers from Eastern Europe who look after the elderly and people in need of care and live in their homes are entitled to the minimum wage - including in the Standby time.
After politics had not bothered with the problems of “24-hour care” for years, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) praised the verdict: “It doesn't matter whether you come from Bucharest or Bottrop: If you work, then you have one Deserves a decent wage. ”The federal government's representative for care, Andreas Westerfellhaus, even demanded that 24-hour care should become a“ mega-issue in politics ”.
Britta Beeger
Editor in business.
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Marcus Jung
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Andreas Mihm
Business correspondent for Austria, East-Central, Southeastern Europe and Turkey based in Vienna.
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However, almost nothing has changed since then.
This is probably due in part to the political summer break, but above all because a legally sound solution is not easy to find - and at the same time the need for families and many Eastern Europeans is great.
Experts estimate that in 300,000 German families women from Poland, Romania or Bulgaria look after people in need of care, wash them and accompany them to the toilet, cook, shop and clean for them, with estimates suggesting that up to 90 percent work illegally.
If the ruling were implemented, wages would multiply, which hardly anyone could afford.
Out of 24-hour care could lead to care collapse because there are not enough home places and skilled workers available.
No big wave of lawsuits to be expected
The unrest is correspondingly great at the moment. Recruitment agencies report that many families are insecure. They were wondering how they can organize home care in the future, says Susanne Punsmann from the consumer advice center in North Rhine-Westphalia. Some are considering employing the supervisors in the black or switching to self-employed workers. At first they do not have to fear additional payments, since according to the judgment the minimum wage of the caregiver - in the specific case it was a Bulgarian who sued for additional payment of tens of thousands of euros - is directed against the intermediary abroad.
In the future, however, the costs could be passed on to customers in Germany, says Ulrike Kempchen, head of the legal department at the federal interest group for the elderly and people in need of care. So far, she is only aware of one case in which this has happened. Whether there will be more depends on whether the carers have the courage to enforce the demands against their foreign placement agencies.
It doesn't look like that at the moment. Thomas Heller, legal secretary at DGB Rechtsschutz, accompanied the plaintiff Ms. Alekseva - a pseudonym used by the trade union federation - during the legal dispute. The problem with 24-hour care has long been known. Nevertheless, it cannot be assumed that there will be a wave of lawsuits. “I am not aware of any pending proceedings. But many are waiting for the outcome of our case, ”reports the lawyer.
One reason is obvious: Anyone who decides to file a lawsuit against a placement agency as a nurse risks follow-up orders and can end up on a "blacklist".
Justyna Oblacewicz from the DGB network “Faire Mobility” reports that foreign carers have followed developments closely.
"We're seeing more requests for future lawsuits," she says.
The demand is not easy to enforce.
Despite the pilot character, Alekseva's case is likely to be atypical: She is about to retire and is a member of the Verdi union.
Self-employment as a way out
But there is another reason why not much has changed at first: Many of the foreign helpers are no longer permanently employed by the placement agencies, but come to Germany as freelancers or as "employee-like" self-employed with social security protection at home - in the judgment does not apply in these cases. Both alternatives are legal, emphasizes Frederic Seebohm, managing director of the Federal Association for Home Care and Care, which represents the placement agencies. The statutory working and rest hours would then not apply. The model could now spread even more widely. Critics complain that it is often a question of bogus self-employment.