The SPD has agreed to make the Working Hours Act more flexible, but has rejected the demand of its coalition partner, the FDP, to abolish the eight-hour day.
“It is important that we as legislators provide a framework, especially for areas involving physical work or shift work,” said SPD deputy parliamentary group leader Verena Hubertz to the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). “This also includes the principle of the 8-hour day, as agreed in the coalition agreement.” Nevertheless, it makes sense to reform the Working Hours Act. “Flexible working is already a reality for many people in companies and it is right to further develop the Working Hours Act.” Collective bargaining and company agreements are crucial here. In addition, a distinction must be made between office work and shift work.
SPD parliamentary group leader Katja Mast emphasized that paying overtime and increasing the minimum wage are more important than making working time regulations more flexible. “Abstract working time debates don’t help anyone,” Mast told the RND. “We are first talking specifically about the workload and working conditions of the nurse, the forklift driver and the people who work thousands of hours of overtime without seeing a cent in return.” The issue of minimum wage is also a priority: “For us, a higher minimum wage is an absolute priority. And this one will come.”
The Greens warned that making working hours more flexible should not lead to overloading of employees. “Protecting employees from excessive working hours is central to an attractive business location,” said deputy parliamentary group leader Andreas Audretsch to the RND. “The Working Hours Act sets the framework; we will not weaken the law to the detriment of the employees.”
In the RND interview, FDP parliamentary group deputy Lukas Köhler called for the legal limit on maximum daily working hours to be abolished and for only a maximum weekly working time to be stipulated. In the coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP agreed to create so-called experimental spaces. Deviations from the current maximum daily working hours could then be recorded in individual collective agreements or company agreements. In principle, according to the coalition agreement, the eight-hour day should be maintained.