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"Job dumping" site coming to Sweden

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
"Job dumping" site coming to Sweden

A controversial German job website, on which the advertised jobs are given to the person offering to do them for the lowest salary, is on its way to Sweden. The site, jobdumping.de, was developed by young German entrepreneurs who want to cash in on the record levels of German unemployment.

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Jobseekers can apply for positions just like in any other recruitment site; the only difference is that those offering to work for the lowest salary secure the job.

Unemployment has become a big political issue in Sweden. The official unemployment rate is only five percent, but according to a study by union organisation LO the true number of unemployed is between 20 and 25 percent, when people in early retirement and on sick benefits are counted.

Oliver Heim, one of the owners of jobdumping.de, informed TV4’s business news that a Swedish launch could come soon:

“We plan to go international between now and the summer. By the end of the year we hope that we will be operating on the Swedish, Spanish and French markets.”

Swedish Social Democrats say they fear the effect the site could have on Swedish wages. Party press secretary Håkan Olander told The Local that the site amounted to a “poverty auction”:

“This is not something that we have had in Sweden before, and is completely alien to the Swedish way of thinking,” he said.

LO was more relaxed about the idea. Ingemar Göransson, from the organisation's wage and welfare unit, said that the site "doesn't scare me one millimetre".

"This is a silly idea, and I don't think it will get very far in Sweden. Union rights are much weaker in Germany than they are here, and unemployment there is worse," he said, and added that Swedish collective agreements mean that wages in most workplaces cannot go below a certain level.

"Capitalism has inflicted worse injuries on us than this."

According to Dagens Nyheter the German version of the site has generated a lot of interest. Since its launch last November, the site has drawn more than 300 000 visitors and brokered more than 1000 jobs. DN also reported that the German builders’ union has considered going to court because wage levels are lower than the collective agreement rate.

Sources: Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Industri

David Murphy

David Murphy is managing director of Word of Mouth Communications

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