Hans-Jürgen Urban, executive board member of IG Metall: “More protection and respect in basic security is good for the unemployed because the system then loses a relevant part of its patronizing practice. And it’s also good for employees, because in the future they will have significantly less fear of social decline if they are at risk of losing their job with the citizen’s income. Anyone who now claims that hard-working people are disadvantaged by citizen income is factually wrong and trying to divide.
The planned citizens’ benefit is characterized by the fact that it ends the regime of fear on the labor market. It means a bit more social security instead of immediate fear of relegation and loss of savings. Employed and unemployed must not be further incited against each other. Anyone who attacks the citizens’ income and wants to keep Hartz IV only promotes a downward spiral that threatens to sweep away the incomes of employees.
The reference that many employees have hardly any more available despite working says much more about the scandalous expansion of the low-wage sector and precarious employment than about overly generous social benefits.”