In an exclusive interview with the trade medium MM MaschinenMarkt, the President of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Dr. Thomas Lindner, criticizes the productivity of temporary workers and explains why he generally expects prices to rise in this sector.



Excerpts from the interview:



Due to falling unemployment, people who were previously hard to place are now finding jobs in temporary work again. Does this mean that the productivity of temporary workers is falling?



Lindner: Yes, that is part of the development. I think it is often underestimated in the discussion that the productivity of temporary workers and permanent staff must be the same, even for less qualified jobs. If an employee wants to earn the same as their colleague, they must also make the same contribution to value creation. This is not only a question of initial qualification, but also of the duration of training. This tends to take longer in mechanical engineering than in other sectors where you have a lot of assembly jobs, for example.



The increasing labor shortage, the introduction of a minimum wage and the increased negotiating power of the DGB trade unions in the temporary employment sector will make personnel services more expensive. Will temporary workers then still be attractive for mechanical engineering companies?



Lindner: We will always have to deal with wage trends in Germany because we are heading towards a labor shortage. Supply and demand control the level of wages, and if the supply of labor becomes scarcer, this will first be reflected in the wages of skilled workers, but at some point the wages of temporary workers and helpers will also rise.

The only question is how companies will react, for example if they outsource even more simple tasks abroad. In the end, the customer has to pay for everything. But if they are not prepared to do so because foreign competitors are cheaper, all the considerations in Germany are of no use to us. Instead, our cost structure must be set up in such a way that we can hold our own against international competition and therefore also against Chinese companies, for example.



On the provider side, do you anticipate consolidation among temporary employment agencies, which will also drive up costs as competitive pressure decreases?



Lindner: I expect to see more specialization, for example with personnel service providers concentrating on certain qualification levels. There are already temporary employment agencies that place management staff and those for engineering services.



The full interview appears in issue 8 of MM MaschinenMarkt from February 22, 2011. You can order a free sample copy at: pressestelle@vogel.de.



About MM Maschinenmarkt: With a circulation of 44,500 copies, the weekly industrial magazine published in Germany offers business news, industry news, management topics and practical technical information for decision-makers in management, production, automation and design throughout the manufacturing industry. MM is published internationally in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Thailand, Korea and China with a total annual circulation of more than 6 million copies. The specialist portal www.maschinenmarkt.de is aimed primarily at managers and specialists in the core sectors of the manufacturing industry. Professional users can find solutions for their daily tasks in seven topic channels. The parent company Vogel Business Media is one of Germany's leading providers of specialist information with around 100 trade journals and 60 websites as well as numerous international activities. The headquarters are in Würzburg. The headquarters are in Würzburg. The company celebrates its 120th anniversary in 2011.