Alliance of Associations Opposes a Ban on Contract Partnerships

No to the ban on contract partnerships – this is what the Alliance for a Division of Labor Economy stands for, in which the leading economic associations Federal Association of Wholesale, Foreign Trade, Services (BGA), Federal Association of Courier, Express, and Postal Services (BdKEP), Federal Association of Parcel and Express Logistics (BIEK), Federal Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (PHAGRO), Federal Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics (DSLV), Federal Logistics Association (BVL), and the Trade Association Germany (HDE) have joined forces.

(Berlin) In the current legislative period, a societal climate of regulatory enthusiasm has emerged, resulting in deep interventions in entrepreneurial activities. The latest example is the attempt to enforce a ban on contract partnerships in the amendment of the Postal Act. Recently, a majority of the federal states has once again advocated this through the Bundesrat. However, the campaign is based on anecdotal evidence and false statements, cloaked in concerns about working conditions in the parcel industry.

One does not need to possess clairvoyant abilities to sense that it will not stop with the parcel industry. Other economic sectors, where subcontractors work in a division of labor with contract partners, will also be affected in the future.

Contract partners are indispensable for the German economy. A politically mandated in-sourcing would be organizationally, technically, financially, and legally unfeasible for countless companies. It would force thousands of independent entrepreneurs to abandon their businesses and enter dependent employment.

The direction of numerous political and union actors is obvious: Entrepreneurial freedom over the organization of one’s own business processes in the social market economy is to be replaced by a dirigiste enforcement of professional policy goals. Neither the companies nor the structural regulations in the social market economy, such as the Commercial Code, are trusted in this regard.

Joint Position Paper

The Alliance for a Division of Labor Economy categorically rejects the ban on contract partnerships, both in the parcel industry and in all other sectors. In the position paper “Promoting Social Market Economy – Avoiding Dirigisme in the Social Sphere”, the associations demand the trust of politics in the participants to independently agree on suitable working conditions. The German economy must not suffocate in harmful regulations!

Read the position paper here

Further information also in the BdKEP magazine (issues 2 and 3):

https://loginfo24.com/magazine/?cate_ID=bdkep

Photo/Graphic: © BdKEP and partner associations