New working time models
Majority supports government plans for weekly working hours
Instead of working for eight hours a week, for four days with ten hours each? That could enable the federal government’s plans. This means that workers have their preferences.
A majority of employees in Germany have spoken out for the introduction of a weekly working time. In a YouGov survey for the German Press Agency, 38 percent of the respondents advocated the plans of the federal government to introduce a weekly instead of a daily maximum working period. Each fifth (20 percent), on the other hand, rejects the advance, 37 percent see this neutral.
Followers of a weekly working time mainly justify their consent 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) also expect more flexibility for employers, since they are no longer tied to the statutory maximum working hours of eight hours a day.
More or less productive?
A good fifth of the approving employees (22 percent) assume that a weekly working time would increase productivity. The opponents of a weekly work are completely different: two thirds of them (66 percent) believe that productivity suffers when employees work for more than eight hours. For 61 percent of the opponents, a longer daily working time could make employees too hard.
Four days per week with ten hours of working time?
In the coalition agreement of the Black-Red Government, 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-even and especially in the sense of better reconciling of family and work.”
The introduction of a weekly working time could, for example, mean that instead of five eight-hour days a week, you work four ten-hour days. But other variants are also conceivable. Yougov interviewed 2,027 people for the representative survey from May 14th to 16th.
A majority (37 percent) of the respondents would rather work ten hours on four days – with the same wages. 28 percent prefer an eight-hour day five days a week. The supporters of the eight-hour day mainly argue (60 percent) that they could not work concentrated and be productive for more than eight hours. They also refer to less time for family, hobbies and leisure time (a good 40 percent).
Those who want to work for ten hours on four days justify this primarily with the fact that they then have more days off (80 percent). In this group, 43 percent also assume that family and work could be better combined in this way. A good fifth of those who prefer ten hours on four days believe in higher productivity.
dpa
Source: Stern
