On 16 May and ahead of the metal sector collective negotiations that are scheduled to start this autumn, IG Metall president Jörg Hoffmann presented the results of the second part of the ‘giant’ consultation project that was conducted between mid-January and mid-February and in which some 680,000 of the sector’s workers (40% of which are not IG Metall members) participated. Part one of the consultation was presented at the end of April (c.f. article No. 10175) and addressed lifelong training and the digital age. Part two now concentrates on both working times that are actually being carried out and those that workers would wish for. Given that 67.9% of those asked wished to work thirty-five hours a week or less, while 45% of the sector’s workers are in fact working in excess of thirty-five hours a week, the IG Metall union is seeking to move negotiation towards more flexibility in working time, something that “respects workers’ lives.”
45% of workers work for more than 35 hours per week. IG Metall fully intends to place the issue of flexible working time to the benefit of workers at the center of sector collective negotiations scheduled for this autumn.” In terms of working time workers want the possibility of giving their opinion instead of just accepting what is ordained,” declared the union president Jörg Hoffmann. In order to achieve this Germany’s biggest union organized the ‘giant’ consultation project, which is...
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