Works council member Harald van Bonn almost had to laugh. The employer resisted the proposal to allow part-time work to be limited to a specific period upon request. The reasoning: It’s impossible to plan with employees who only want to work fewer hours for a limited time. “Especially here in IT, where flexibility is constantly required,” says the works council chair of the Cologne-based IT service provider Gothaer Systems.
Employers can’t always demand flexibility while failing to offer it themselves, the works council made clear. Although they didn’t reach an agreement, the employer agreed to consider employees’ requests if they provide a valid reason. “To my knowledge, no one has been denied fixed-term part-time work so far,” says van Bonn.
Flexibility Is Not a One-Way Street
A good ten million people work part-time. Nearly 80 percent of them are women, and a significant portion—39 percent—would like to work longer hours but cannot. There is currently no right to return to full-time work. Works council members like van Bonn have to painstakingly negotiate this, and decisions are often made on a case-by-case basis. For many employees, this means they are stuck in the part-time trap.
Unions have long fought for the right to work part-time. It has been enshrined in law since 2001, and the number of part-time workers has risen, especially among women. In 2015, compared to 1985, a good 15 percent more women were working part-time. But after the initial jubilation—“Hooray, we have the right to part-time work”—union members, and working women in particular, were left feeling disillusioned. For very few people does part-time work bridge the gap between family responsibilities and professional life in a way that ensures them financial independence. Often, there are no strategies in place to deploy part-time employees in roles that match their qualifications.
Reactions are usually gut-level: “Oh no, here comes someone back from parental leave. Oh, she wants to work part-time. What are we going to do with her now?” Many end up in a dead end, with no chance of advancing professionally or financially. Part-time work and leadership still rarely go hand in hand, as a recent study by the Hans Böckler Foundation shows. According to the study, only 11 percent of part-time employees hold leadership roles or work in management.
At best, stagnation
Monika Müller-Bertrand, a works council member at Daimler in Stuttgart, sees just how much part-time work holds women back—for example, among highly qualified women such as production engineers: “This professional group typically moves up two pay grades in three to four years. For women, it’s generally more difficult to reach the target pay grade. But working part-time makes it virtually impossible.”
The works council member repeatedly sees female colleagues who, as part-time workers, are no longer working in their profession—whose careers, at best, have stalled and, at worst, are going down the drain. “That’s why we’ve been advising female colleagues for years to only work part-time on a temporary basis.” At Daimler, this often works even without a works agreement. But a legal entitlement would improve the situation for many women, says Monika Müller-Bertrand.
A draft bill by Federal Labor Minister Andrea Nahles could bring about change. It provides for employees to work part-time on a temporary basis in the future and then return to full-time work. The fact that policymakers are taking action is also a success for the unions. IG Metall and all other DGB unions have been demanding a right to return from part-time to full-time work for years.
Political progress—a victory for the unions
However, they still see room for improvement in some areas. For those already working part-time, little will change. The changes to the right to increase working hours provided for in the draft bill are far from sufficient. The draft does not provide for a general, unconditional right to return to full-time work for employees who are already working part-time. Furthermore, the right to part-time work is to apply only to companies with 15 or more employees. Women often work in small businesses, so many would therefore be unable to exercise this right.
Christiane Benner, vice chair of IG Metall, believes that employers must also have an interest in supporting part-time employees who wish to increase their working hours. “Given the growing shortage of skilled workers, companies should not turn away women who want to work full-time.”
Even though no one at Gothaer Systems has yet been denied a request for temporary part-time work, works council member van Bonn welcomes a potential legal entitlement. “Here, people have to justify it. Basically, everyone has to lay their cards on the table. That bothers us as the works council.” Since part-time work can now also be arranged on a temporary basis, it’s not just women who are using it for childcare or caregiving. Some also work shorter hours for continuing education or for health reasons. “But you don’t necessarily want to explain that to your employer,” says van Bonn.
