Campaigns urging the German government to rethink proposed changes to its Labour Leasing Act are ramping up, with two staffing industry groups highlighting the precarious position the changes put freelancers in, among other implications.

Recruitment trade body the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) and recruitment agency alliance Allianz für selbstständige Wissensarbeit (ADESW) are both drawing widespread attention to the proposals.

APSCo says in a statement the changes to the Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz (AüG) licence, proposed last November by minister Andrea Nahles of the German federal ministry for labour & social affairs, would widen the definition of an “employed relationship”. The AüG licence allows companies to ‘lease’ temporary labour.

Under the proposals, assignments of leased workers will be limited to 18 months. After that point they would either be seen as a permanent worker or have to find another role.

According to Tremayne Elson, managing director of APSCo Germany, the proposed change has created confusion over the employee status of freelancers and the definition of what is meant by an “employed relationship”. Elson says the confusion has meant a contractors’ freelance relationship could be misinterpreted as an employed relationship.

Elson told Recruiter APSCo is writing to at least 100 entrepreneurs, managing directors and owners of private industry, Chancellor Merkel’s office, the federal ministry of labour & social affairs, as well as various trade bodies that have expressed concern about the proposals, stating what their issues with the changes are.

Elson added ADESW, an alliance of agencies operating in Germany including SThree and Hays, are planning a large media campaign to communicate directly with the members of parliament and legislators about the implications of the changes.

In the statement APSCo revealed it has already seen one German multinational terminate 180 freelancer contracts in response to the proposals.

The statement also revealed the British Embassy in Germany is to take the lead in talks between APSCo and German government over the proposals.

On Friday, Elson and Carlos Frischmuth, head of recruitment giant Hays in Berlin, met with senior officials at the British Embassy to discuss the proposed changes. 

The statement added minister Nahles has already redrafted certain clauses of the bill, while a revised draft bill is imminent which APSCo will be going through in “great detail”. 

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