FRANKFURT AM MAIN: The coronavirus pandemic has reignited debate in Germany about cutting the working week to four days to help preserve jobs ...
FRANKFURT AM MAIN: The coronavirus pandemic has reignited debate in Germany about cutting the working week to four days to help preserve jobs during and after the economic shock.The president of Germany's powerful metalworkers union IG Metall, Joerg Hofmann, started a national conversation by proposing the measure at a time when fears about unemployment are rising, as they are across the world.
Hofmann, whose union represents more than 2 million workers, also said that for those switching to a shorter week, salary cuts should be kept in check so as not to cause a fall in purchasing power. Germany's far-left Die Linke party wants to go even further, urging a reduction of working hours to 30 a week without a loss of pay.Switching to a shorter week will only worsen"the enormous productivity shock" being suffered at the moment, according to Steffen Kampeter, director of the employers' federation BDA.
In the beleaguered car industry's current climate, the four-day week would be"neither appropriate nor economically viable", Daimler personnel chief Wilfried Porth said.
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