Dhe employers’ association BDA has rejected the demands for a four-day week with full wage compensation. “Significantly less work with full wage compensation – economically that’s a milkmaid’s calculation,” said BDA general manager Steffen Kampeter of the newspaper “Bild am Sonntag”. “We will only be able to finance our welfare state and climate protection in the long term if we are more willing to work and innovate.”
Kampeter, on the other hand, was open to four-day weeks with the same number of hours. “If it’s possible to spread 39 hours a week over four days – that’s fine too. We are very much in favor of making working time legislation more flexible.” He also has nothing against individual solutions in companies. Nevertheless, a reduction in weekly working hours “sends the wrong signal in our situation”.
Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius also rejected the demands for a four-day week. “If our first priority is to work less with full wage compensation, we won’t win a game internationally,” Källenius told the newspaper. The industry is in a century-long transformation, and you have to roll up your sleeves.
IG Metall boss: volume of work is increasing
The chairman of IG Metall, Jörg Hofmann, however, defended his union’s proposal. He expects that the four-day week will increase the overall volume of work.
“Eleven million employees, mostly women, work part-time. That’s almost 30 percent of all employees subject to social security contributions, which is the highest proportion in Europe,” Hofmann explained to the newspaper. The employee surveys by IG Metall showed that with a four-day week of 32 hours, more women would be willing to return full-time because the model also works with families.
“If only ten percent of women were to go part-time to four-day full-time, the volume of work would increase more than the government’s target for the immigration of 400,000 skilled workers per year,” Hofmann continued. The labor market has changed and working hours are now at the top of the list of priorities for young people rather than earnings. According to Hofmann, a four-day full-time job would not be an additional challenge given the shortage of skilled workers in Germany.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr sees things differently: “In view of the blatant shortage of skilled workers, the proposal for a four-day week is incomprehensible. Reduced working hours would not strengthen Germany’s competitiveness, but damage it,” he told the Funke media group.
In addition, the assumption that people work more productively with a four-day week cannot be transferred to many areas. “For example, in health care or childcare, it is necessary for workers to be on site. According to Dürr, working hours cannot be offset.
Encouragement from the SPD
There is encouragement for a four-day week from SPD federal leader Saskia Esken. “I can well imagine that we can achieve good results with a four-day week,” she told the editorial network Germany (RND). “There are studies that show that people work more effectively in a week reduced to four working days because they have higher job satisfaction. Because they have more privacy.”
Parents in particular needed other, more flexible and shorter working hours in order to be able to better organize their family duties and needs. You need wage compensation for that.
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