Germany: Porsche site in Leipzig to adopt 35-hour week from 2025

As part of a so-called “collective agreement for the future”, the management of sports car manufacturer Porsche and the IG Metall trade union have reached an agreement that will see the weekly working hours of the 4,300 people employed at the former’s Leipzig factory cut from 38 to 35 hours from 2025, without any reduction in pay. This alignment with the conditions in the western Länder will take place in two stages. The first step will occur in January 2022, when weekly working hours will be reduced to 36.5. The 35-hour week will apply in full as of January 2025. This agreement is a logical extension of the branch agreement signed on 25 June (see article n°12620), which will serve to close the gaps that have existed since 1995 between the territories that were formerly East Germany and West Germany. The branch agreement created a legal framework that requires the management of companies located in former East Germany to negotiate on this matter, with the pace of negotiations and adjustments left up to the social partners at the firms in question. Porsche has followed in the footsteps of Volkswagen, ZF and SAS Automotive (Faurecia) with the signing of this latest agreement. IG Metall hailed the deal as a strong symbol and as a way of accelerating an adjustment process that had been expected for years. The agreement signed at Porsche also rules out redundancies until 2030.