Fighting for 28-hour week

MICHELLE FITZPATRICK & ISABELLE LE PAGE -

Germany’s largest union is bracing for a combative start to the new year as it presses demands for a 28-hour working week, warning employers to expect mass strikes in the battle for a better work-life balance.

The mighty IG Metall union, which represents some 3.9 million workers in the metal and electrical industries, says it is ready to flex its muscles after initial negotiations with employers made little headway.

An agreed no-strike period ends on December 31, and IG Metall chief Joerg Hofmann has told employers to expect brief “warning strikes” from January 8, and he said more widespread action could follow.

“If by the end of January the employers have not changed their stance, we will consider resorting to 24-hour strikes or calling a vote for a general strike,” Hofmann said this week.

Seeing its bargaining power strengthened at a time of bulging order books and record-low employment in Europe’s top economy, the union is pushing for a six-per cent wage increase.

The Gesamtmetall employers’ federation has so far offered 2 per cent, setting the stage for both sides to meet somewhere in the middle.

Far more controversial is IG Metall’s call for employees to be allowed to switch to a 28-hour week for a two-year period — with limited impact on wages. That demand has been met with fierce resistance from company bosses, and stirred wider debate about quality of life and the future of work in booming Germany.

In certain circumstances, IG Metall says reduced working hours must not go hand-in-hand with a drastic salary cut — for instance when staff are caring for young children or ailing relatives.

In those cases, the union wants employers to top up workers’ salaries to help make up for the shortfall that comes with clocking up fewer hours.

It also wants employees to be guaranteed a return to a 35-hour week after two years. “I think IG Metall’s proposal is very modern,” professor Gustav Horn of the Hans-Boeckler Foundation think-tank told the Nordwest Zeitung daily.

He said it would inevitably lead to higher costs that would hurt the bottom line, but could also be a way for firms to hold onto their best workers. “In future, well-qualified employees will select those companies that offer flexible hours that suit their lives at that time,” he predicted.

But Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank, said a shorter week would mainly hurt small and medium-sized companies who could struggle to meet production targets.

“If it would be replicated throughout the economy, it could do serious damage,” he said, in a nod to IG Metall’s track record of paving the way for major changes to the work environment. — AFP