Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Bonn-Berlin `Traveling Circus' May Run Out of Steam as Germany Cuts Costs

(Bloomberg) -- If Horst Mertens is ever overwhelmed
by the pressures of the 300-mile commute from his home in Bonn to
a government job in Berlin, taxpayers will cover the therapy.

Mertens, a scientist at Germany's Health Ministry, is one of
about 5,000 state employees who still flit between the two
cities, eight years after the capital moved to Berlin. To soften
the blow, workers can get housing and travel subsidies, as well
as counseling, under what Mertens describes as ``a traveling
circus for civil servants.''


Read more at Bloomberg Exclusive News

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