European Court removes minimum wage

April 5, 2008
Issue 
746

European governments no longer have the right to legally enforce minimum wage standards in their contracts, according to a European Court of Justice ruling on April 3. The court was passing judgement on a case brought by a Polish construction company against the German state government of Lower Saxony. The government had cancelled a contract to build a prison when the Polish employer was discovered paying considerably less than the German minimum wage, as required by state legislation. The court ruling asked why workers who "accidentally" were employed on a publicly funded project should enjoy greater protection than others. The German Die Linke party described the ruling as a "slap in the face of workers"

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