Employer boss Stefan Wolf rebounds with his suggestion that Germans should work more and longer. Social associations and unions resisted the push by the president of Gesamtmetall for a pension at 70 and longer weekly working hours. It is piquant that Wolf is going on the offensive just before the wage round in the metal industry – the negotiations will be fierce anyway because of the high inflation.
Wolf justifies his request with the fact that the population is aging and living longer. “If you look at the demographic development and the burden on the social and pension funds, then the reserves have been used up,” he said. “We will have to work longer and more,” said the head of the employers’ association of the metal and electrical industry. Because citizens are living longer and longer, the retirement age is to be gradually increased to 70 years, otherwise the system would no longer be financially viable in the medium term.
“Companies should rather improve working conditions.”
IG Metall board member Hans-Jürgen Urban reacts sarcastically. “The fact that employer representatives are demanding retirement at 70 is nothing new. It would be new if they improved working conditions in such a way that more employees reached the normal retirement age in good health,” he said Süddeutsche Zeitung. There is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to improving working conditions.
The social association VdK Germany expresses itself more sharply. “Even today, only a minority of 65-year-olds work full-time,” says VdK President Verena Bentele. A higher retirement age primarily affects those who work in physically or mentally demanding jobs today. “For this group, a pension at 70 means a pure pension reduction.” Instead of life-distant considerations about the retirement age, one should rather strengthen the statutory pension insurance. “In the future, everyone will have to pay in there – in addition to employees, civil servants, the self-employed and politicians.”
Because of demographic developments, the government will in any case raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 by the end of the decade. All established parties reject an increase to 70 years. “We have agreed in the coalition that we will not raise the statutory retirement age. And that will not change,” said Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) recently.
Work longer and retire later – Wolf wants both
Because politicians reject a higher retirement age almost across the board, the employer-related Institute of German Economics (IW) recently proposed a longer working week of 42 hours as an alternative. “If you add that up, you would compensate for the demographically caused loss of work volume by 2030,” says IW boss Michael Hüther.
Total metal boss Wolf is now demanding both: retirement age 70 and a longer working week. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 4.5 million employees were already working overtime in 2021 – one in five was unpaid. As of this month, a new EU directive obliges companies to inform their employees whether they can order overtime at all and how they can compensate for it.
The combination of working longer and later pension is explosive, especially as an announcement to the collective bargaining partner IG Metall. The union not only rejects a later retirement. It also won the 35-hour week in tough disputes in West Germany (and gradually in the East). In the 2021 collective bargaining agreement, she also pushed through a reduction in working hours to a four-day week as an option for companies.
IG Metall demands eight percent more wages for the four million employees
IG Metall board member Urban reacted correspondingly negatively: “Anyone who wants to turn the screw on working hours should first take a look at the working conditions in the workshops and offices. Working longer hours affects the health of the employees, who are already suffering from stress and high work density. We need more skilled workers and therefore more attractive jobs with collective agreements.”
The exchange of blows sheds light on the wage round of the largest German industrial sector, which includes car companies and mechanical engineers. IG Metall is demanding eight percent more wages for the four million employees – the highest demand in 15 years. Because of the strongest inflation in decades, workers expect a balance.
Employers argue the union should hold back because of economic uncertainty. The Bavarian metal and electrical employers bayme vbm expect production to shrink by at least two percent – not counting a possible gas delivery stop. 30 percent of the companies fear a critical profit situation. IG Metall, on the other hand, argues that most companies are still making good profits.