The leader of Verdi, Frank Werneke, criticized the ruling center-right coalition government regarding the planned “relief premium”. Speaking to “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (Saturday editions), the chairman of Germany’s second-largest union stated that the 1,000 euros the government is presenting “will prove to be a failure in my view”. Werneke added that while this measure raises high expectations, he questioned whether employers would voluntarily pay for it.
He argued that even the federal government, the states, and local municipalities were not planning to pay the premium to their own employees. Werneke questioned the rationale, asking, “If the state is not willing to implement its own laws, why should private employers do so? Furthermore, one-time payments do not help us in collective bargaining negotiations”.
The Verdi chief also accused the federal government of showing too much leniency toward the oil and gas corporations. He asserted that there was an urgent need for a price cap on fuels, noting that countries like Luxembourg and Belgium had established maximum profit margins for the industry. While he conceded that temporarily lowering taxes on diesel and gasoline by 17 cents for two months was not wrong, he deemed it insufficient. Instead, he demanded that the so-called “excess profits” of the oil companies must be returned to the citizens. Overall, the union leader expressed critical views of the government for safeguarding the corporations rather than holding them more responsibly.
