Jürgen Linnemann, 57, has spent his entire working life in a sheltered workshop for disabled people in Germany. Now, he is taking a test case to court, arguing that he and hundreds of thousands of others like him should be paid the legal minimum wage.
Linnemann works in what is known in German as a *Werkstatt für behinderte Menschen* – a sheltered workshop. Across Germany, some 300,000 disabled people work in such facilities, producing goods for internationally known companies and brands. But despite doing the same work as mainstream employees, they are paid less than the minimum wage.
“Test case seeks minimum wage for 300,000 disabled workers in German sheltered workshops”
This is possible because disabled people in sheltered workshops are technically not classified as employees. That means the right to the minimum wage does not apply to them, nor do other rights such as the ability to join a trade union. Linnemann is asking the court to rule that people in his position should be treated as employees and receive the minimum wage.
Hubert Hüppe, a former federal commissioner for the interests of disabled people and a prominent critic of the workshop system, said once someone becomes part of this segregated system, it is very hard to leave. “You go from a special kindergarten to a special school and then into one of these sheltered workshops,” he said.
This was the experience of Dirk Hähnel, now in his 50s, who spent most of his adult life in sheltered workshops near Paderborn. He was sent to a regular school initially, but before long was transferred against his wishes to a special school. “My parents were told that a special school was the best choice,” he said. Later, when preparing to leave that institution, he was told his only option was to go to a workshop. “I didn’t want to do that,” he said.
He tried to find an apprenticeship instead. One devastating job interview stuck with him: “I told my potential employer that I had epilepsy and he said, ‘we don’t employ idiots here’.”
The journalist, who was born blind, noted that if their parents had not ignored a first school report recommending a school for children with learning disabilities, they too might have ended up in a workshop. Instead, they are one of only a handful of journalists in Germany with a visible disability.
The legal action brought on behalf of Linnemann could have implications for hundreds of thousands of disabled people across the country.
