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Cautious attitude to politicians
20th of August 2025 Article by Katja Scholz
Contract cleaning companies in Germany are not feeling optimistic, says ECJ’s Katja Scholz.
During the early summer it was time for the Federal Association of Contract Cleaners’ (BIV) annual spring survey which has provided a reliable picture of the mood in the sector since 2019.
As in the previous year, the general mood is gloomy: barely 24 per cent of the companies questioned view the coming business year with any degree of optimism – though this does represent a small improvement on the autumn survey where only 18.5 per cent had a more positive outlook. Almost half the companies questioned assume that business will remain stable and the remaining roughly 28 per cent have negative expectations of the year as a whole.
The reason for this cautious and restrained prognosis stems largely from the attitude of the new government and the coalition’s future plans which the companies questioned have criticised. However, a narrow majority of 55.3 per cent trust the new coalition “completely” or “more or less” to strengthen the business environment in the coming years - almost 45 per cent on the other hand have no faith at all in the new Federal Government’s ability to bring about an economic upturn.
Planned tax breaks
The results of the survey even reveal a critical attitude towards the approved Coalition Agreement itself: only just over 30 per cent of the companies questioned regard this as “good” or “mainly good”, 24.4 per cent rejected the agreement while the 45 per cent majority considered it only “fair”. The mood is also strongly influenced by political redefinitions and the outcome of the early elections.
Tax breaks for companies are in fact planned – but contract cleaning will probably not benefit greatly from these. “The Coalition’s plans for tax relief so far are disappointing. “Tax cuts from 2028 cannot be taken seriously. Tax depreciation possibilities may well help industry - but our sector with its average labour cost rate of 85 per cent is going to get little benefit from this,” says federal guild master Thomas Dietrich.
“A proper tax relief policy for both companies and employees alike will only be achieved when politicians finally dare to grapple with sweeping reform of the social security system. Social security contributions must come down!”
According to the Coalition Agreement, tax depreciation rules are to be aligned, electricity costs are to fall and from 2028 corporate income tax is to be reduced over a five-year period by one percentage point each year. Almost 64 per cent of the firms questioned state that these plans will help them “not at all”, “as good as not at all” or “probably very little” and only 0.4 per cent regard the proposals as “very good”.
The strong collective bargaining structures in the sector represent a further reason for the gloomy mood. At present, the universally binding sector-specific minimum wages are set at €14.25 for unskilled and €17.65 for skilled workers. The collective-agreement wages are due to rise next year to €15 and €18.40 respectively.
While the contract cleaning trade’s own sector-specific minimum wages generally exceed the legal minimum wage, there is however no clear stance on free collective bargaining. The basic principle of wages free from political constraints is “very important” for a clear majority of almost 90 per cent.
The Social Democratic party particularly has continued during the last few weeks to question the vote of the independent Minimum Wage Commission. “This attitude is cheap and opportunistic”, says Thomas Dietrich. “Either free collective bargaining along with the vote of the independent Minimum Wage Commission applies or it will be down to parliament to determine wages in future. Free collective bargaining and state-determined wages cannot however exist side by side.”
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