On average, full-time employees in Germany work 37.7 hours per week under collective bargaining agreements. In the West German metal industry, the figure is as low as 35 hours under collective bargaining agreements. In reality, however, people work significantly longer hours—and often for free. This is because excessive working hours are frequently not tracked or capped and are therefore not compensated. This is despite the fact that, in this country, collective bargaining agreements and the Working Hours Act do not provide for the expiration of working hours, and unpaid work is legally prohibited.
But how can something that’s not supposed to happen actually happen? Simon’s example provides the answer. He works at a metal manufacturing company in North Rhine-Westphalia that is bound by a collective bargaining agreement, with a 35-hour workweek and a working time account. In 2014, Simon earned an hourly wage of 16.75 euros—excluding overtime premiums. In reality, however, the skilled metalworker worked significantly longer than 35 hours a week because he otherwise would not have been able to complete his work. Anything beyond his daily target working time of seven hours goes into his working time account. And because the account has a cap and Simon couldn’t take compensatory time off due to his heavy workload, dozens of hours are simply cut off unpaid at the end of the year. Simon is not an isolated case.
Over 1.7 billion given away to the bosses?
In 2014, according to the Federal Employment Agency, everyone in the economy as a whole worked an average of 48.9 hours of overtime. Of those, 27.8 hours were without compensation in the form of money or time off. Applied to Simon as an average employee in the overall economy, this means he worked 27.8 hours at a rate of 16.75 euros per hour without compensation. The bottom line: a gift of 465.65 euros to his boss—without any surcharges or interest.
Since Simon, the skilled metalworker, is not an isolated case, it’s worth looking at the bigger picture. If we apply Simon’s example to the entire industry—with its 3.7 million employees in Germany—the scale of the gifted working hours becomes clear: According to this calculation, employees gifted employers in the metal and electrical industry working hours worth approximately 1.72 billion euros last year—excluding premium pay and interest.
The example of skilled worker Simon from North Rhine-Westphalia is, of course, only a model calculation. The average number of overtime hours in the metal industry differs from the overall economic average, and not all metal workers in Germany earn an hourly wage of 16.75 euros. Depending on the job and region, this wage may be higher or lower. Simon’s hourly wage, however, is fairly average, so the 1.7 billion euros can serve as a rough estimate that illustrates the scale of the working hours given away.
IG Metall intends to address this problem. While employees are willing to adapt flexibly to operational needs, as revealed by IG Metall’s employee survey, they do expect something in return—preferably in the form of time off, and when they themselves need or want it.
