Germany: anticipating coming difficulties, the social partners and the Democratic Party are asking for the extension of short-time working measures

Quick appeal to short-time working.  In two different declarations, the heads of German employers and trade unions asked that the Merkel administration extended the period during which businesses are entitled to use short-time working.  “It is precisely when the economy is still doing well that we should prevent risks” Dieter Hundt told the Süddeutsche Zeitung daily on October 20th while Michael Sommer was saying, in the same newspaper, “The financial and euro crisis can have an impact on the real economy.  Therefore, it would seem wise for the government to make the necessary tools available so as to let us react quickly and in a non-bureaucratic manger when the situation on the employment market worsens.”  The two men didn’t say until when they wanted the measure to be extended.  First, they ask that the two Houses of Parliament, the Bundesrat and the Bundestag, agree to give the government the possibility of making this decision quickly, for instance via a regulation, free of the usual long and tedious legislative process (see our dispatches No.  100320 and 090664).  The SPD, which initiated massive appeal to short-time working in 2009 and 2010, also a similar request.
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ntil when they wanted the measure to be extended. First, they ask that the two Houses of Parliament, the Bundesrat and the Bundestag, agree to give the government the possibility of making this decision quickly, for instance via a regulation, free of the usual long and tedious legislative process (see our dispatches No. 100320 and 090664). The SPD, which initiated massive appeal to short-time working in 2009 and 2010, also a similar request.

End of the employment miracle. These requests were

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