Overview
- The lawsuit was filed by 57-year-old Jürgen Linnemann and reached the Arbeitsgericht Münster as a model proceeding that challenges workshop pay rules.
- The plaintiff demands the statutory minimum wage of €13.90 per hour instead of the current low monthly 'entgelt' that he and many colleagues receive for supervised workshop work.
- The case turns on whether people in Werkstätten für behinderte Menschen are legally employees with full labor-law rights or only 'employee-like', a classification that determines minimum-wage entitlement.
- Workshop management and Caritas leadership reject claims of exploitation and say paying minimum wage for about 1,300 staff at Freckenhorster Werkstätten would create roughly €30 million in extra costs that they cannot cover without political action.
- The dispute raises broader questions for roughly 300,000 workshop participants nationwide and follows formal UN criticism that the current system is discriminatory, so a ruling could prompt legislative or funding reforms.