In the current collective bargaining rounds, several unions are calling for a reduction in weekly working hours with full wage compensation. But can our society afford this?
Sascha Halweg must be a brave man. Or a madman. “We thought we’d just do it. Someone has to start,” said the managing director of the tapas restaurant “Blümchen” in Freiburg. Because the “Blümchen” not only offers Black Forest delicacies, but also with a special working time model: everyone here works part-time – and yet earns as much as if they were working full-time.
“The DEHOGA collective agreement stipulates a weekly working time of 39 hours. We work 31 hours a week for the same money,” explains Halweg. The basic idea was to be attractive to employees. So attractive that the business is running and he doesn’t have to introduce rest days or even close down completely due to a lack of staff, as he sees with colleagues in the catering industry. It’s a very simple calculation: “What can I afford more: losing guests or paying more?”
Shortage of skilled workers coming to a head
Because the shortage of skilled workers is real, and not just in the catering industry. And it will probably get worse. According to calculations by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB), more than seven million workers will leave the labor market by 2035. Offspring? In short supply.
The IG Metall union is also citing demographic change in its current collective bargaining round. In order to be more attractive to young people, she is not only demanding a wage increase of 8.5 percent, but also a reduction in working hours from 35 to 32 hours per week – with full wage compensation. This is the only way to secure jobs in the long term, attract new skilled workers and make the industry future-proof, according to the union. And the German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) also demands a 35-hour week with full wage compensation in a four-day week for employees in shift work.
Work longer instead of less?
Demands that touch on one of the biggest social questions: How much work do we want? Or rather: How little work can we afford?
Not an hour less, says Michael Hüther. “We have to take the shrinking economy into account,” says the director of the German Economic Institute (IW). “But a reduction in working hours leads to falling productivity.” As early as 2019, the IW made a proposal that didn’t fit into the current discourse on “work-life balance” at all: it didn’t call for shorter working hours – but longer ones.
In fact, the average weekly working time of all employed people in Germany is 34.7 hours, which is relatively low compared to the EU. According to the Federal Statistical Office, only Denmark and the Netherlands work less. Hüther thinks that countries like Sweden or Switzerland should be taken as models. In Switzerland, for example, on average people not only work two hours more per week, but also two weeks more per year. “If we align ourselves with Switzerland, it would generate 7.5 billion additional working hours per year and significantly increase productivity,” said Hüther.
Currently, the total German work volume is 62 billion hours per year. That may sound like a lot, but it is a comparatively low level – and with a downward trend. According to the Ifo Institute, the number of employed people in Germany has increased from around 40 to 45 million since 1991. However, the total number of hours worked remained the same during the period, said ifo President Clemens Fuest in an interview tagesschau.de: “The 45 million work as much as the 40 million used to.”
Challenge part time jobs
Why? The answer is “part-time work.” 29 percent of employed people in Germany work part-time, which is one of the highest proportions in the EU. Many women in particular are not fully employed: on average, female employees work 21.4 hours a week. Not always because they want it that way, but often for family reasons – because of a lack of childcare options or because they are caring for relatives.
In view of these figures, the unions’ demands are untimely, says IW boss Hüther: “Anyone who wants to do their work in four days instead of five with the same salary would have to increase their productivity by 20 percent – that seems unrealistic and is, in itself If it were to succeed in individual cases, it would be an extremely unhealthy work intensification. This is simply not possible, especially for employees in the steel industry or in nursing.”
“Getting more out of your employees”?
More commitment to shorter working hours – restaurateur Sascha Halweg also sees it that way and demands exactly this from his employees: more productivity. Because if you work less for the same money, you have to work better.
“The service staff have to sell the food correctly, get more out of it and offer the guests an experience,” says Halweg. In order to achieve this, the entire team must take part in regular training courses.
But the restaurateur is realistic – this concept is difficult to implement in other industries: “I can get more out of my people. But a train driver can only sit on his butt and drive the train. A wage increase or shorter working hours will not improve his performance better.”