Clamp Down on Illegal Building Workers

A unique national partnership between government, business, the IG Bau construction workers union and the nation's financial authorities has been launched in a bid to stamp out the trend of employing black market construction site workers in Berlin. The aim of the "Berlin Alliance for Construction Site Rules" has been set up to prevent the violation of tarif conditions. IG Bau managing director, Rainer Knerler told the dpa newsagency that all alliance partners have developed their own instruments for ensuring legitimate work practices in the construction industry, and that it is now simply a matter of coordinating them. The alliance will work towards keeping competition legal, by creating a basic 'feeling of fear' both in companies and employees, giving them the sense that they are being watched and controlled. Unemployment in the Berlin construction industry is currently higher than 50 percent, and off the books workers have reached an all time high.