Digital Press Kit for Press Release No. 38/2017 IG Metall: Shaping the Digital World of Work with Innovative Company Agreements

Berlin – Economic and social progress cannot be achieved in the digital workplace without co-determination. “Digitalization is completely transforming the world of work. It will become a success story for employees and IG Metall if we combine our proven and successful culture of co-determination with the creative aspects of the new world of work,” said Christiane Benner, Second Chair of IG Metall, at the 9th Engineering and IT Conference organized by the Hans Böckler Foundation and IG Metall in Berlin. “If we successfully shape work in the digital age, we also give people confidence.” IG Metall therefore directly incorporates employees’ ideas and suggestions for shaping digitalization into its union work. Nearly 300 in-house engineering and IT experts spent two days discussing how this can be successfully achieved with researchers and union representatives.

“We want more self-determination and individual freedom to shape their work for employees in the digital workplace,” Benner emphasized. Many companies already have innovative company agreements in place for agile work, the use of shared services, e-learning, or swarm-based work. For example, one agreement on agile work stipulates that the group itself can call for a “democratic stop” in the event of overload. In response to the “stop,” solutions must be developed immediately through joint discussions between company management and the works council. “This is what modern co-determination on an equal footing looks like! This is how digitalization succeeds with employee participation,” said the vice chair of IG Metall.

“Flexibility isn’t a one-way street, neither is creativity, and digitalization certainly isn’t either,” Benner added, referring to the current collective bargaining demands in the metal and electrical industries, where IG Metall is calling for a 6 percent wage increase as well as an individual right to reduce weekly working hours to up to 28 hours for a period of up to 24 months. IG Metall is open to flexible and agile forms of work. However, these can only be successful if employees are able to shape them on an equal footing with employers. All employees should have the right to reduce their weekly working hours to up to 28 hours for a period of up to 24 months. “This is about a fundamental right—namely, self-determined working hours,” Benner emphasized.