Mannheim – Greater self-determination in the workplace of tomorrow, reliable regulations, and a redistribution of working hours throughout one’s career are the core issues of the current debate within IG Metall. “We need a new era in working time policy. The workplace of tomorrow cannot be managed with the working time culture of the past. The concept of ‘full-time plus overtime plus increased workload plus flexibility’ has had its day. In the working world of the future, people will work in a self-determined and secure manner so they can be creative, healthy, and satisfied. That is our vision—and that of the workers. Our nationwide survey shows that employees want working hours that fit their lives. And we want this to be possible for everyone,” said Jörg Hofmann, President of IG Metall, at a conference on working time policy held Tuesday in Mannheim.
To kick off the upcoming round of collective bargaining, over 800 members of the regional bargaining committees are discussing ways to implement this demand through collective bargaining policy. In early 2017, over 680,000 employees participated in a nationwide IG Metall survey and articulated their expectations regarding working time arrangements. “A wide range of demands can be derived from the feedback—including in response to employers’ obsession with flexibility. For the vast majority of workers in our industries, the 35-hour workweek is and remains the preferred work schedule,” said Hofmann.
For employees, balancing work and personal life is at the top of their list of priorities. “It’s about the right to choose to temporarily reduce working hours—for example, to 28 hours, if employees so desire—coupled with the right to return to the 35-hour workweek. Whether it’s time to build a house, one less day of commuting per week, or saving up time credits for a trip around the world—employees’ needs must also be taken into account.”
If employees reduce their working hours because they need to care for children at home or provide care for family members, compensation is required so that everyone, regardless of income, can afford to do so. “We want to regulate this compensation as a modern social benefit through collective bargaining agreements, because time for children and caregiving is a social necessity.” A right to “short full-time” work must therefore be accompanied by adequate compensation and the right to return to full-time work, Hofmann emphasized.
Shift workers also need relief. “They demonstrably face greater health risks.” They must therefore also have the opportunity to reduce their working hours under fair conditions and with financial compensation. The pressure from companies to subject employees’ working hours solely to market demands particularly affects shift workers in production. They must therefore be granted, for example, more flexibility in scheduling their days off. “More autonomy over working hours—that is also a right of shift workers. We want to make this possible for them so that the workplace is fair,” said the IG Metall chairman.
Even in the new federal states, where the collective bargaining agreement stipulates a 38-hour workweek in the metal and electrical industries, the 35-hour workweek is the preferred working time. “We need to make progress here. There is still a dividing line running through Germany when it comes to costs and working hours. It is being drawn by employers,” said Hofmann.
The conference clearly rejected all attempts by employers to weaken the Working Hours Act. “Working on your own terms also means being able to pull the ‘red card’ and say: That’s it for today! That’s why there must continue to be reliable collective bargaining and statutory regulations on rest periods in the future,” Hofmann demanded.
IG Metall will continue the intensive discussion in workplaces over the coming weeks and will finalize its demands for the upcoming collective bargaining round in the metal and electrical industries this fall.
