Clarification in court
Union chief against reform of working hours
The black and red coalition has announced a reform of the Working Hours Act. The unions reject changes.
The union chairman Michael Vassiliadis rejects a reform of the Working Hours Act and announces possible legal steps. “If necessary, we will bring the question of flexible working hours before German and European courts,” said the head of the industrial union mining, chemistry, energy (IG BCE) of the German Press Agency.
In industry, the possibilities for flexibility are already largely exhausted today. “The second is: where the collective agreements apply, a change in the Working Hours Act would have no effect because the respective collective agreement applies.” But the pressure from the employer would increase.
“However, the consequences for the employees who have no protection through collective agreements would be dramatic. “The third point: We will address this in the professional associations. We know from studies that the risk of accidents increases from the eighth hour of working hours. This is not a good idea for systems in the chemical industry. The other is health protection.”
Coalition wants to enable weekly maximum working hours
The Union and SPD coalition agreement states that the world of work is changing. Employees and companies wanted more flexibility. “That is why we want to create the possibility of a weekly instead of a daily maximum working time – also and especially in the sense of better reconciling family and work.” A dialogue with the social partners began to design.
Employer president Rainer Dulger had called for a quick reform of the Working Hours Act. “A weekly maximum working time fits better into the age of digitization than the strict daily maximum working hours,” said Dulger of the dpa. “We finally need that in Germany too.”
The law stipulates that the daily working hours of employees must not exceed eight hours. Under certain conditions, it can be extended to up to ten hours. After completing the daily working hours, employees must have an uninterrupted rest period of at least eleven hours – a shortening to ten hours is possible under conditions, for example in hospitals, in transport companies or restaurants.
The DGB chairman Yasmin Fahimi had said that the abolition of the regular eight-hour day was completely over the reality of the employees. Even today, people in Germany worked numerous overtime, many of them unpaid. The social partners already agreed flexible working hours in thousands of collective agreements.
dpa
Source: Stern
