Muenster resident Fabian Loew, 31, started the website in November and claims he already has held more than 3,300 auctions, leading to jobs for 1,300 people.

Mr Loew says the website is now receiving 30,000 visits a day. As a way of compensation, he takes a percentage of the first month's wage of the successful job hunter.

'Labour cost is incredibly high in Germany compared with other European countries,' Mr Loew says of his highly controversial initiative. 'It needs to be completely reformed.'

As Germany has no statutory minimum wage, Mr Loew's site invites employers with openings for cleaners, babysitters, waiters or construction yard workers to offer a maximum salary.

Job seekers then compete by underbidding each other, causing a downward wage spiral. The lowest bid so far came in at ?3.16 ($31.59) an hour for a three-hour job cleaning a basement. The highest wage has been ?1,600 for a six-week job as a doctor's receptionist.

Jobdumping.de turns the central principle of the eBay online auction service on its head and has labour unions fuming.

The Hans B?ckler Stiftung, a trade union institute, warns that the scheme violates a series of labour conventions.

Even the liberal opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP), which has aggressively been pushing for a more flexible labour market, condemns jobdumping.de as an 'online slave market'.

The webpage is a nightmare come true for influential groups that have been defending Europe's cosseted social model, which is already consumed by fear of a 'race to the bottom' triggered by low-wage competition from Eastern European and Asian economies.

With more than 5.2 million jobless people, Germany's most pressing issue is unemployment.

Some analysts say the issue could force Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder from office in the next general elections due in 18 months.

At the end of last month, Mr Schroeder invited the opposition to a cross-party employment summit, but it produced hardly any results.

The latest polls show support for Mr Schroeder's Social Democrats slipping before a key election next month in the most populous state of Northrhine-Westfalia.

Meanwhile, Mr Loew plans to launch of his website in Britain and an English-language international site that targets students looking for work in other countries.

'After [former prime minister Margaret] Thatcher and [Prime Minister Tony] Blair, the British are open to new ideas and have a much more flexible attitude to work,' he said. 'So I think it could be a big success over there.'