After an interview in the ZDF documentary “On the Pulse with Sarah Tacke – Citizens’ Benefit System: Life without Performance,” the city of Bremen has drawn conclusions: The municipality has terminated the job center employee Fred Göcken without notice because he Job center “defamed” the municipality’s accusation. This emerges from the letter of termination to Göcken, which is available to the FAZ. The job center itself did not want to comment on the matter.
The ZDF contribution describes a wide range of citizen’s benefit cases, from successful integration into the labor market to individual examples of undeclared work to suspected gang fraud. The article caused a lot of waves because of the sometimes blunt statements made by anonymous interviewees who specifically exploited the system. The job center employee Göcken also criticized in the 44-minute report that the central task of the job center was “spending money”. If the employees placed all citizens’ benefit recipients into work, their work would be unnecessary. He expressed the assumption that between 30 and 40 percent of citizens’ benefit recipients did not provide any true information in their applications. This is “an open secret”.
A court should review the termination
There are no official figures on this question. Göcken doesn’t claim this either, but rather refers to the assessment of colleagues and his own experiences as a job broker. The job center employee told the FAZ that he was taking legal action against the dismissal without notice.
In its termination letter dated May 28, the city emphasized that the interview had not been approved. Instead, the job center employee contacted the ZDF presenter Tacke to report grievances. In the termination letter, the employer points out that criticism is also permitted for public sector employees “as long as it is factual and constructive”.
The “relationship of trust” was destroyed
However, this is different here. “The impression is given that one does not want to comply with the legal mandate to put people into work. In addition, one would not impose sufficient sanctions or investigate suspected abuse by aid recipients, thus dealing with public money irresponsibly.” In the employer’s opinion, these allegations exceed the limits of freedom of expression. “The relationship of trust is thus destroyed.” In addition to Göcken, two field staff from the Berlin job center have their say in detail in the ZDF report. Tacke, who has a doctorate in law, accompanies the two of them during their home visits to recipients of community benefit.
The job center Bremen When asked, took a differentiated position on Göcken’s allegations. According to the statement, the case constellations presented are generally suitable for pointing out real problems. The Bremen job center had no reliable information for the estimated figure of 30 to 40 percent, although the authority admitted: “Incorrect information, failure to report changes or even cases of individual abuse of benefits naturally occur.” These would be consistently checked and tracked by the Bremen job center.
In the job center’s opinion, Göcken’s statement that the job center’s job is primarily to spend money and not to get people into work falls short. “It is true that the job centers are expected to effectively use the resources made available for job promotion.” Making full use of integration resources and supporting people on their way to training and work are therefore important components of the management of job centers.
It is understandable that when looking at the control and financing logic of job centers, the impression could arise that the average rate is particularly important, the authority admitted. The focus, however, is on the question of what support is suitable in each individual case to improve a person’s chances of integration. “Funding decisions are therefore made based on the individual situation.” In any case, Göcken now has to present himself to his colleagues. He has three days to register as a job seeker at the job center.
