Germany slammed the brakes today on applying its new minimum wage to foreign truck drivers transiting the country in a move welcomed by Poland which vigorously opposed the system.
Just weeks after the minimum wage took effect, German Labour Minister Andrea Nahles said after talks with her Polish counterpart in Berlin that the suspension was decided "out of consideration for (Germany's) neighbours".
It will be kept on ice until European rules on the issue have been clarified, she told reporters.
Polish transport companies and the government in Warsaw raised objections after neighbouring Germany introduced a national minimum wage of 8.50 euros (USD 9.60) an hour on January 1, including for lorry drivers passing through the country even just for a few hours.
Germany is the only European country not to exclude transit workers from the minimum wage which it has argued was needed to stave off wage dumping.
An association of Polish transporters last week slammed the German measure as "discriminatory and disproportionate" for requiring Polish-based firms to pay their drivers the German minimum wage for the period they are on the country's soil, or face a fine.
The Polish government had urged Berlin to change the system and complained to Brussels, where the European Commission last week opened a preliminary case to look into whether it complied with European law.
Polish trade unions however had written to Nahles to appeal to her to stand firm.
Labour Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called Berlin's suspension "a good decision" and urged Brussels to clarify the legal situation "as quickly as possible".
The Czech Republic and Hungary had also complained. The minimum wage in the three eastern European countries is around a quarter of Germany's.
Germany's new measure had required a Polish truck driver who is heading to Spain to be paid an hourly 8.50 euros from this year from the moment the driver crosses the German border, before reverting to the wage paid in the driver's home country on leaving German soil.
The driver's employer also faced administrative paperwork under the measure, and a fine if the driver were not paid accordingly.
Nahles said she did not believe Germany was violating European Union rules by applying an across-the-board minimum wage, including for transiting truckers.
She said she expected a decision by Brussels between April and June.
