Jobless Germans Work on Vacation Benefits

BONN —  Germany’s jobless are demanding more vacation time.

A lobby group for the unemployed said Monday that it will press demands for six weeks of vacation pay each year--the same as Germans with jobs--at a series of nationwide rallies on Thursday.

“The unemployed are only allowed to be unreachable for three weeks each year,” Arbeitskreis Arbeitslos (Working Group for the Unemployed) said in a statement. “There is no such thing as holiday for those without a job.”

There are about 4 million unemployed in Germany, about 10% of the work force. Under Germany’s social security system, those without work can receive welfare support almost indefinitely.

The group said those without a job actually need a holiday more than those in work.

“[They] need a way to recover from all the efforts that are tied to the life of unemployment,” the group said. “The frustrating experiences of trying to find a job. The fight with bureaucrats. The limits in lifestyle and the low monthly income.”

The group also wants Germany’s Labor Office to do for the unemployed what most German companies do for their employees and pay them a “13th month” as a “holiday bonus.”

The government is set to release its official July unemployment rate Thursday. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, banking on decreasing joblessness and stronger economic growth to earn him an unprecedented fifth term in office, has forecast the number out of work will drop below 4 million by the fall.