More than 700,000 companies nationwide have now applied for short-time work . Within IG Metall’s organizational area, two-thirds of companies are affected. In 60 percent of these, IG Metall and works councils have secured agreements whereby employers pay employees a supplement to their short-time work benefits. In about 56 percent of these companies, employees receive over 80 percent of their net pay; in 29 percent of the companies, the figure is even over 90 percent—instead of the statutory 60 percent (67 percent for those with children).
Top-ups to short-time work benefits are most common where IG Metall has many members and strong works councils, not only in large industrial companies but also in the skilled trades and service sectors.
No Top-Up Despite Hefty Profits
In four out of ten companies, however, there are no supplementary payments whatsoever. As a result, employees at these companies lose up to 40 percent of their income.
These include well-known companies such as the automotive supplier and defense contractor Rheinmetall. There, top management has decreed that there will be no company-provided top-ups to short-time work benefits. At the same time, however, Rheinmetall is distributing over 100 million euros in dividends to its shareholders despite the pandemic .
Other companies have perfectly understandable reasons for not paying a top-up. A good quarter of them are already facing liquidity problems.
Funds Reserved for Investments
In addition, many companies are currently working to secure their future after the pandemic—for digital and ecological transformation—and have set aside all their funds for this purpose.
“Our employer isn’t paying us anything on top of the short-time work allowance. As a result, I have up to 500 euros less at the end of the month,” explains Armin Muno, who works at the automotive supplier Thyssenkrupp Gerlach in Homburg/Saar. “I’m already worried about how things will go in the coming months. I have a mortgage to pay off, electricity, water—they all still want their money.”
No top-up, despite strong profits in recent years. On the other hand, Thyssenkrupp Gerlach is investing 80 million euros to reduce its dependence on internal combustion engines in the future. “I can understand the management to some extent—after all, it’s also about our future after the pandemic,” says Muno. “That makes it all the more important for policymakers to act now and increase our short-time work allowance.”
Down to 700 euros or less per month
At least the metal industry collective bargaining agreement applies at Thyssenkrupp Gerlach. As a result, the basis for calculating short-time work benefits is still relatively high. But where wages are already low to begin with, there’s basically nothing left to live on.
“I only get 744 euros in short-time work benefits—that’s nowhere near enough. I’m already paying 400 euros in rent,” says Simone Schmidt, who works at the Maja furniture factory in Wittichenau, Saxony. Some of her coworkers are hit even harder: they’re left with just 636 euros a month.
And it could have been even worse: The employees at Maja-Möbelwerk had just fought for and secured their first collective bargaining agreement with IG Metall, effective January 1. But the wage increase is only phased in gradually—and December 2019 is also factored into the calculation of the short-time work allowance.
Politicians must act
Maja manufactures dressers for Ikea. And since Ikea shut down its furniture stores overnight due to the coronavirus, Maja immediately went on zero short-time work. “That completely caught us off guard,” reports works council member Rüdiger Wolf, who is also a member of the local executive board of IG Metall East Saxony. “We negotiated hard, but in such a short time we were only able to secure a €50,000 fund for hardship cases, from which employees can apply for assistance.”
Wolf is calling on policymakers to take action. So far, the federal government has only provided relief to employers during short-time work by waiving their social security contributions. It’s high time that something was done for the employees as well—by both employers and policymakers.
