As the new government's stance in favour of greater flexibility and longer working hours for German workers fuels a growing debate, the IG Metall trade union has announced that it is shelving its basic demand for a four-day week, to take account of the difficult situation facing industrial companies. In the service sector, however, reducing working hours remains a key demand.
IG Metall, Germany’s largest and most influential trade union, announced on 27 May through its chair Christiane Benner that it was temporarily withdrawing the four-day week from its list of collective demands. Included for the first time in 2023 for negotiations in the steel industry, this demand has yet to prove successful. “The four-day week with full pay is no longer on the list of union demands,” Christiane Benner told the newspaper Bild Zeitung. This decision does not make the model...
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Article authors
Thomas Schnee
Freelance