Germany's sweeping welfare reforms went into effect without a hitch yesterday as labour offices cut payments for a million jobless and qualifying tests got tougher. Threatened mass protests to oppose the most far-reaching welfare reforms in a generation failed to materialise on the first day of the new, lower payments. Some 300 protesters tried to enter the main jobs centre in central Berlin but police blocked their path. "The turnout is a bit disappointing but when people start realising the impact of this then they'll come out," unemployed protester Detlef Stuye, 50, said.
The reforms are intended to help halve unemployment by 2010 but in the short-term they are expected to boost the jobless to close to five million. In November, 4.64 million Germans were out of work, roughly 10.8 per cent of the work force. Demonstrators had threatened to storm labour offices in 55 cities. Many job centres hired security guards to protect staff and police have trained employees on handling angry recipients. "Our goal is to interrupt job centre operations," Olga Schell, leader of a protest group known as "End-of-the-Modesty", had said at a news conference late last week. But officials said there were no signs of problems yesterday morning. |