More flexible working time to defend regular employment. “We need a creative policy for working time management to take work-life balance into account” declared Helga Schwitzer, member of the IG-Metall’s board, while the union is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first agreement on the 40-hour week. “We were able to identify how much flexible working time tools were useful to save jobs during the crisis” she went on, referring to short-time working and time savings accounts among other things. She thinks that these instruments should also be developed since, even with an encouraging economy and decreasing unemployment, businesses’ increased productivity suggests that many full-time jobs that vanished with the crisis in metal, automotive and electrical engineering won’t be recreated. “If businesses take working time back up to the level it had before the crisis, around 300,000 jobs out of 3.4 million in the sector could be gone by 2012” Mrs. Schwitzer is afraid, who thinks that a 39.1-hour week – the average level before the crisis – is definitely too high to protect employment. “We have to stay at a lower level, on the basis of the 35-hour week, and negotiate collective agreements that allow us to create personalized accounts and working time systems. We need this to protect employment and improve the protection of employees’ health.”
to short-time working and time savings accounts among other things. She thinks that these instruments should also be developed since, even with an encouraging economy and decreasing unemployment, businesses’ increased productivity suggests that many full-time jobs that vanished with the crisis in metal, automotive and electrical engineering won’t be recreated. “If businesses take working time back up to the level it had before the crisis, around 300,000 jobs out of 3.4 million in the sector cou
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