Germany's work conditions spark concern Sabrina Decker was earning €1,100 a month in a German call-centre, but then her employer forced her on to a new contract paying 40 cents per processed call, rather than an hourly wage. Although she works 12 days on and two off, she now takes home less than €1,000 a month. While attention elsewhere in Europe is focused on stellar levels of executive pay, German voters and politicians are disturbed about the Dickensian conditions that have descended on parts of the country's job market since reforms to make it more flexible eight years ago. "Politicians have turned work into a commodity no different from horsemeat," raged a commentator for the news magazine Stern recently, in reference to the Europe-wide scandal about adulterated beef. Unemployment is at a 20-year low and car workers are taking home big bonuses, but allegations about the exploitation of low-skilled workers are making the news daily. The union-run website that reported Ms Decker's woes lists many similar stories, all under assumed names for fear of reprisals. Ralf Brücher, for example, is unhappy as a security guard earning €7.38 an hour, but other jobs are on contract basis. "Once you fall into that, you don't get out," he said. The services and restaurant unions Verdi and NGG have spearheaded a campaign to introduce a national minimum wage of €8.50 per hour, which successive governments have resisted with the argument that this would breach Germany's highly successful practice of leaving wage-bargaining to employer federations and unions, free of political interference. Following elections last month in Lower Saxony, opposition Social Democrats and Greens plan to use their new-found majority in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, to get legislation under way. This had raised the pressure on chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democrats, whose call for sector-specific wage floors has been long blocked by the pro-business Free Democrats. But even this junior coalition party seems to have changed its mind. Since job-market and welfare reforms took hold in 2005, employment has grown while the seasonally adjusted jobless rate stands at 6.8 per cent. Old-style jobs with employer-funded welfare contributions have risen by more than 7 per cent. However, so-called atypical jobs are up by almost one-fifth - Germans hold down 7.4m tax-exempt "minijobs" which pay €450 per month or less, and there are a further 900,000 contract workers. According to Eurostat, the EU statistical office, low-paid jobs now make up 22 per cent of the workforce, up two points since 2006 and five points above the EU average. It is a rate equalled only by the UK and surpassed by eastern Europe. "The low-wage sector helps low-skilled people find work," says Eric Thode at the Bertelsmann Foundation, a think tank. "But we will get real social problems if these people don't get the chance to move up into "better" jobs and thus get stuck in precarious employment." Welfare reforms championed by Ms Merkel's predecessor, the Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder, made it easier for authorities to force low-skilled unemployed to take menial jobs. The government's Institute for Labour Market and Employment research reckons a third of people working in bars and restaurants, and a quarter of shop assistants, are now "minijobbers" - with all but unregulated wages. The chancellor wants to halt a decoupling of the low-wage from the traditional labour market by backing sectoral minimum wage deals. These already cover more than a dozen sectors, with regional variations, including some 600,000 construction workers and security guards. But companies have been warning against extending wage minimums to all sectors. Hans-Peter Keitel, then president of the association of German industry, said in September the move would add to costs at a time of renewed economic weakness, ultimately costing jobs. And he received support from surprising places. Karl Brenke at the traditionally left-leaning DIW economics institute reckons that "tinkering" with the labour market will not solve its problems. Some studies suggest that minimum wages do not cost jobs, but they are not conclusive, he says. "If politicians are going to go for it, I'd proceed with caution," he argues. I think €8.50 [as a national minimum] is too high - start with €7 and see what happens. In his opinion, recent outrage is driven by electoral tactics, and is very late - the jobs market started to change a generation ago and reached its darkest stage in 2006. By his count, the proportion of low-paid has been fairly stable at 22 per cent since then; the number of contract workers even fell last year. A minimum wage is not the answer, he says. Workers need pay rises that again reflect productivity gains and inflation. That would be the only sure way to spur demand and create proper jobs.