Working hours: DGB survey: Eight-hour day popular | Stern.de

If the employees in Germany could determine their working hours themselves, around three out of four a maximum of eight hours a day would work. This emerges from a new employee survey by the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). A quarter of all respondents (26 percent) would work between eight and ten hours. 98 percent therefore do not want to work for more than ten hours a day.

If you ask the employees when they would start and end their working day, if they could determine this themselves, a common desire for common working hours is shown. 95 percent of the employees want to end their working day at 6 p.m.

When should work start and end

If employees could define the beginning of their working day themselves, the vast majority would start work after 6 a.m. For 73 percent, a start of work fits between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. Almost 60 percent would choose a start between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Less than ten percent want a job from 10 a.m. and later.

The possibility of dividing the working day and reworking in the evening seems unattractive for the vast majority of employees. Employees with children work more often with such an interruption (17 percent) as employees without children (9 percent).

Many often exceed eight-hour day

43 percent of those surveyed exceed the eight-hour day very often or often, as can be seen from the DGB index. This rarely occurs in another 36 percent. According to their own statements, around one or one of five employees never works for more than eight hours.

DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi warned that after government plans, employers could pretend to be working hours more in the future. “For employees without protection by a collective agreement, this would mean that the arbitrarily arranged working time lengths were exposed to defenseless,” she said.

DGB boss towards the end of the eight-hour day

“An abolition of the regular eight-hour day goes completely past the reality of the employees,” said the DGB boss. The people in Germany already worked numerous overtime. Social partners also agreed flexible working hours in collective agreements. “The working time law in its current form offers enough scope for this.”

In April, a YouGov survey resulted in slightly different tendencies. Accordingly, the federal government’s plans for the introduction of a weekly working time for many people encounter approval. 38 percent supported the advance for a weekly instead of a daily maximum working time. Each fifth (20 percent), on the other hand, rejects the plan, 37 percent see it neutral.

Government begins working time dialogue

Followers of a weekly working time justify their approval in the YouGov survey on behalf of the German Press Agency mostly with the fact that employees are more flexible-for example because they could have a long weekend (82 percent). A good four out of ten supporters (44 percent) expect more flexibility for employers, so that they are no longer tied to the statutory maximum working hours of eight hours a day.

According to DGB, the government starts a social partner dialogue on the Working Hours Act this Thursday. Union and SPD want to introduce a weekly framework for working hours instead of the usual eight-hour day. “We will carry out a dialogue with the social partners for a specific design,” says the coalition agreement.