Collective bargaining in the steel industry starts today. The focus is on working hours: IG Metall wants to implement a four-day week. Employers fear an even greater shortage of skilled workers.
At 35 hours, weekly working hours in the steel industry are already lower than in many other industries. If the unions have their way, it should fall even further. They are demanding a 32-hour week with wage compensation, which in many cases would amount to a four-day week.
Shorter working hours against the Skilled labor shortage?
In times of a shortage of skilled workers, such demands cause worry lines on employers’ faces. If there aren’t enough workers available now, what will happen when people work shorter hours?
IG Metall reverses this argument. From the union’s point of view, the industry would become more attractive through shorter working hours and could thus attract more skilled workers.
The central point of contention is the question of whether more or fewer workers will be needed in the steel industry in the future. Because the industry is facing major upheavals. “The transformation, such as switching from coke to hydrogen, will require less work in the long term,” says IG Metall.
The steel employers’ association argues exactly the opposite. Due to the transformation towards “green” steel, more skilled workers are needed. It is feared that a reduction in working hours would deprive companies of this “urgently needed additional workforce”.
Employees have stronger ones Negotiating position
In addition to the 32-hour week, the unions are demanding 8.5 percent more wages in collective bargaining. From the point of view of labor market expert Dominik Groll, the demands are an expression of the increased bargaining power on the part of the employees: “Now they can enforce demands that they could not enforce ten or 15 years ago,” says Groll, who researches at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). . Given the demographic situation, i.e. the aging population and the lack of workers, this will remain the case for the foreseeable future.
There are also two special features in the industry, according to Thorsten Schulten, collective bargaining expert at the Economic and Social Sciences Institute (WSI), which is close to the unions. “In the long term, fewer employees will probably be needed in the steel industry, and shorter working hours are already common practice there,” says Schulten.
According to figures from IG Metall, more than a third of employees in the steel industry already work less than 35 hours per week, but do so without pay. “Without wage compensation, a reduction in working hours is not very attractive, especially now with high inflation,” says Schulten.
Impact on other industries?
Due to these peculiarities, the situation in the steel industry cannot be directly transferred to other sectors, according to the tariff expert. Nevertheless, Schulten believes a symbolic effect is possible: “If there were actually a four-day week in the steel industry, that would also have an impact on other industries.”
However, IfW researcher Groll points out that the overall shortage of skilled workers will persist, even if individual sectors gain an advantage in the competition for workers through particularly attractive working hours. “What can work in an individual industry does not necessarily work across the economy as a whole,” says Groll. He warns of a loss of prosperity if people work less across the board.
The collective bargaining parties of the north-west and east German steel industries are meeting together for the first time today. Things could get heated as early as December, from then on warning strikes are possible in which the unions could demonstrate their increased power.