It has become a bit tight compared to the representation of the state of Hamburg in the center of Berlin. Here, where the traffic light tips will meet from this Monday for the decisive talks, some groups have positioned themselves in the morning so that the negotiators do not forget their demands. Supporters of the Campact protest movement, together with Greenpeace demonstrators, take the best seats opposite the entrance to the Hanseatic representation, right next to it, representatives of Amnesty International hold up their posters, an activist from “Omas for Future” – and people from the German Trade Union Federation ( DGB), which almost disappear behind a Greenpeace car with the capital letters “Right of way for the climate”.
When DGB boss Reiner Hoffmann shows up, he then attracts attention in the crowd. “Hands off the Working Hours Act,” Hoffmann calls into the megaphone. The eight-hour day should not be “broken up”. “Progressive” means putting the protection of the people at the center, he says, alluding to the self-image of the traffic light interlocutors as a progressive alliance.
The trade unionists drive a passage in the paper about the exploratory results of the SPD, Greens and FDP. There it is said that they want to support unions and employers in “enabling flexible working time models”. Employees should be able to organize their working hours more flexibly, even if only within the framework of collective agreements, under certain conditions and for a limited period of time. “Experiment rooms” call this the explorers. Before the election, the FDP in particular urged that companies be able to deploy their employees in times of evening e-mails and concentrated work before deadlines without coming into conflict with the Working Hours Act.
The employers’ association BDA considers the current Working Hours Act to be out of date
The Working Hours Act basically states that almost all employees, with the exception of executives, are allowed to work a maximum of 48 hours a week, in exceptional cases even 60 hours. You have to take a break after six hours of work at the latest, after work you are entitled to eleven hours of rest. According to the employers’ association BDA, this is no longer appropriate in times of digital work.
DGB boss Hoffmann, on the other hand, fears the delimitation of working hours into the evening – with additional stress on the employees. “You don’t experiment with the health of employees,” says Hoffmann. Employers and unions have already given enough flexibility. Employees already work two billion hours of overtime every year, half of which is not paid.
Hoffmann focused specifically on one formulation in the exploratory paper: that regulations on maximum working hours per day should be relaxed if “collective bargaining agreements or works agreements provide for this”. So far, unions would have to and Works councils agree, in future it should be sufficient if only the works councils agree. Hoffmann sees the unions being booted out as a result. “We need the consent of the unions to take the pressure off the local works councils,” he says.
At the end of October, the traffic light tips had already taken an appearance at the trade union congress of the IG BCE as an opportunity to reassure the employee representatives. Olaf Scholz had asserted that they did not want to dismantle employee rights, Annalena Baerbock assured that it was about the compatibility of family and work. And FDP leader Christian Lindner emphasized that the experimental space was also to be created with a view to “what employees want”.
Reiner Hoffmann were not really reassured by these messages. However, says the DGB boss, according to what he has heard from the coalition negotiations, the Working Hours Act is going in the right direction. Now we have to make sure that it stays on this course.