Topic: “Generation ‘P’ – The unequal treatment of the old and the young in the workplace”

‘Generation P’ can stand for ‘Precarious’, or the German word for interns, ‘Praktikanten’. The idea behind it remains the same whatever it stands for: It describes a generation that instead of getting fixed employment after studying is forced to complete a number of badly paid internships. Increasingly, interns are being exploited as cheap labour because they are not covered by the regulatory hand of the public authorities and are badly informed about their rights. They have minimal legal protection, and work long hours to try and prove themselves to possible future employers, but they can be fired with very little notice and for no given reason. A new precarious generation has emerged.

On Friday, 4 July 2008, the awards ceremony took place in Berlin in the scope of a symposium . Five papers by young scientists have been awarded with the prize, which is endowed with 10.000 € prize money.

The winning papers and more information on their authors can be found on our German website.

These were the tasks for the award-winning researchers: 

The question is focused around three subtopics. Candidates should attempt question 1, either 2a, 2b or 2c and question 3.

1. Define “Intergenerational Justice” and “Just Wages” and address the relationship between the two.
2. a)    Analyse legal and collective labour agreements regarding intergenerational justice in Germany
   b)    Describe how the world of work is changing in general, and what effects this has on different generations,
   c)    Compare situations facing the younger generation entering the world of work in Germany and at least one other country.
3. Which solutions could be found on a social, corporate and individual level?