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The Left party leaders Katja Kipping and Sarah Wagenknecht. Photo: DPA

Socialists back 30-hour workweek initiative

Published: 11 Feb 13 11:28 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20130211-47893.html

Leading members of Germany's socialist Left party are backing an initiative to shorten the country's workweek to 30 hours without lowering wages in a bid to create more jobs.

More than 100 prominent German politicians, trade unionists and economists are demanding the measure in an open letter published on Monday.

“We need to make shortening working hours a project for society as a whole, it cant be a purely wage-related political task.” Hein-Josef Bontrup, professor for economic law in Gelsenkirchen and co-initiator of the letter, told daily newspaper the Tageszeitung.

Signed by leading politicians from The Left party, Katja Kipping and Sarah Wagenknecht, the “Project Shorter Working Hours” argues introducing a weekly 30-hour limit would help combat mass unemployment in Germany.

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“Along with the three million unemployed people in Germany there are over three million part time workers working on average 14.7 hours a week, which for them is insufficient,” the letter said, adding also that an oversupply in the work market was pushing down wages.

Change would need to be phased in over several years though and would only work if there was no drop in pay.

Bontrop told the Tageszeitung he was aware that union bosses would be sceptical of the move because they believed their employees would be too scared about a pay cut and having to do the same amount of work in less time.

“My experience is that a fundamental knowledge and awareness is lacking,” he said, adding that many union leaders "don't get first-semester economics. You have to limit labour otherwise you can't raise wages."

The Local/jcw

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

#1
12:26 February 11, 2013 by The-ex-pat
So as a employee, I need to cut the hours of my workers, pay them the same and then take on more people to cover the missing hours of the people I have sent home on full pay.......................Just one question, what cuts to my company do I make to pay for the extra worker(s)....?
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#2
12:44 February 11, 2013 by lucksi
Where does the local get it's pictures from? It is always the most unflattering version I have ever seen. I have no clue who the persons in this picture are (probably the two mentioned in the article)...

Anyway, a German word comes to mind "Hackfresse" -or with most pictures of male politicians Backpfeifengesicht.
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#3
12:52 February 11, 2013 by Englishted
@The-ex-pat

Remember those days not so long ago when the same argument would have been put forward for working Saturday morning as part of the normal working ,or employing children to reduce costs ,or even slavery .

You have a point and I understand your worries but if nothing is done then the high rate of unemployment (particularly youth ) in Europe will drive people into the arms of extremist parties as happened all over Europe in the 30's .

Please give your ideas as to creating employment , I'm sure it will not involve opening up the E.U. even further to net another source of cheap labour.
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#4
13:16 February 11, 2013 by Berlin fuer alles
'shorten the country's workweek to 30 hours without lowering wages in a bid to create more jobs.'

How are they going to pull that rabbit out of the hat? It would be nice but in reality impossible. More realistic is the possibilty of reducing working hours with a proportional pay cut. One of the big problems in Germany is the reluctance/refusal of employers to to that due to insurance costs etc.
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#5
13:21 February 11, 2013 by freechoice
from the state Harts IV and social spending savings when more people are going to work. they spend more in the economy when they have income!!
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#6
13:32 February 11, 2013 by yllusion
To me the best solution on an European level is to stop this fairy tale of free market and neoliberalism (because this only works for the big players) and charge extra to those who don't comply with the European standards of living. What I mean by that is charging extra fees from products coming from countries where labour is exploited, people have ridiculous salaries, excessive work hours and poor work conditions. This would dissuade more companies from going abroad for increasing profit, keeping the jobs in Europe, it would persuade companies to come back and the extra money generated with this measure would be used to compensate for the increasing price of products manufactured with products coming from those countries (e.g. China). For this type of measure Europe needs to have some balls and also work together with north america. It is a nonsense that Europe spends so much money with humanitary causes and at the same time, on the reverse side of the coin, allows their own companies to exploit cheap labour abroad. It's time to be coherent with our values. Take such measure and jobs will return to Europe, especially to Spain, Portugal and Greece, people will have their wealth back and live happy everafter.
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#7
13:33 February 11, 2013 by mobaisch
That would be AMAZING! personally, it will definitely make my life easier, and give me a bit more time for my life! my kid! etc!

I do not care about unemployment rate. Pure personal :)
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#8
13:38 February 11, 2013 by bobmarchiano
Allowing businesses to open on Sundays would create more jobs.

Its time to separate church and state
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#9
13:47 February 11, 2013 by Eric1
It's time to separate the religion of socialism from the state.
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#10
13:58 February 11, 2013 by DoubleDTown
Am I mistaken, or did this same idea NOT work when implemented in France? Just another ploy by Katja to get more time at home.
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#11
15:00 February 11, 2013 by McM
I must have misunderstood the proposal. I thought what they were suggesting was that "the world owes me a free lunch socialist club" should actually work for 30 hours a week instead swanning around playing victims and dropouts all day and living off the hard work of those who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and earn a crust. Silly mistake I must have been dreaming.
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#12
16:12 February 11, 2013 by Bulldawg82
This will put a strain in the very area that Germany is trying to enhance and have grow. This burden on the companies will not produce more jobs that can sustain people, but will actually lose such positions. I understand the desire here, but the means will be counterproductive to that end.
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#13
16:41 February 11, 2013 by Englishted
@ Eric1

Then you advocate the ending of democracy do you?
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#14
16:42 February 11, 2013 by raandy
You could split wood with the Ladies picture.

The 30 hour work week has been tried before, but in all cases it was done with a reduction in pay. Most people preferred the extra time to themselves and agreed to it .Americans are only one medical catastrophe away from bankruptcy, so as long as they can keep their health insurance& pensions with a shorter work week ,they would.

Obama Care says 30 hours a week is considered full time.

Cutting the work week can only happen if people are not fearful that fewer hours means they will lose health and pension plans.
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#15
17:22 February 11, 2013 by ChrisRea
"would only work if there was no drop in pay" - If they meant the hourly pay, then I think the idea is worth considering. If they meant an increase of the hourly pay so that people would earn the same with 30 hours of work as they with 39 hours, then they are immoral. It simply means theft from the pocket of entrepreneurs, the ones that, without having this obligation, are actually creating jobs. And, of course, it would mean that some businesses would go bankrupt and their employees will become unemployed. The businesses that will survive will have to increase their prices and that will erode the purchasing power of the final consumer i.e. of the population. That would be a quick way to "produce" more poverty. All in the name of winning more votes.
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#16
17:52 February 11, 2013 by mitanni
@yllusion It's easy to create jobs; the GDR had full employment, for example. It's just that people couldn't buy much for the money they got. That's the consequence of the policies you advocate. Pretending that market forces don't exist makes about as much sense as pretending that gravity doesn't exist.
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#17
19:12 February 11, 2013 by Reader75
Shorten the country's workweek to 30 hours without lowering wages in a bid to create more jobs...then imagine the uproar when hours go back to 37.5 and there's no increase in pay.

How about allowing stores to stay open until 9 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights or open stores from 1-6 p.m. on Sundays?

Some people don't want a full-time job, they just want to work a few hours during the day while their children are in school or a few hours here and there to supplement the family income.
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#18
20:53 February 11, 2013 by Pablo H.
I think it is not possible to complete the then resulting gap with the existed human resources because of the lower education and work experience. Furthermore it makes no sense for companies to pay the same salary for a dropped counterperformance.
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#19
22:31 February 11, 2013 by neunElf
¦quot;My experience is that a fundamental knowledge and awareness is lacking,¦quot; he said, adding that many union leaders "don't get first-semester economics. You have to limit labour otherwise you can't raise wages."

Talk about a lack of fundamental economic knowledge!

Raising costs to businesses only helps your competition!

France tried this foolishness and how did that turn out?
Report abuse »
#20
04:51 February 12, 2013 by vonSchwerin
Let me get this straight.

Those two geniuses want Germans to work 30 hours per week but receive the same salary as 37.5-40 hours? Then, the "missing" 10 hours a week would be worked by newly hired employees, also at the same wage rate.

Sure, workers would love it. 1/4 less work, but the same pay. My question is who is going to pay for this brilliant idea? Employers EITHER would have to pay a lot more to maintain the same number of manhours worked OR would lose productivity since they would be paying the same for 3/4 the work performed. This makes no economic sense.

Even if the LINKE took over the Bundesregierung and made this federal law, employers (e.g. manufacturers) would probably compensate for the massive extra costs by raising prices. In the end, this *might* create some jobs, but at the expense of tremendous inflationary pressures on the economy.
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#21
12:42 February 12, 2013 by jg.
If an employment contract states that an employee will receive certain rewards in return for working a certain number of hours each week, any alteration would have to be agreed by both parties to the contract - you cannot force employers agree to new contracts. If this idea were to be implemented, it will simply see more German jobs exported eastwards.

The greatest stupidity in this idea is that it would stifle employment in small businesses, where the cost of employing a single individual can be the difference between success and failure but where most growth and new jobs are likely to be created.
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#22
14:30 February 12, 2013 by TheWonderer
It CAN NOT work!

We CAN cut down work hours, sure.

But paying the employees 40 hrs/week pay for doing 30 hrs/week work results in higher prices - which customers will not be willing to pay.

Besides, hiring more workers means more cost for training, personal equipment (overalls, boots etc. which all need to be provided by the employer in Germany) etc. Also, more workforce mean need fore more locker-rooms, larger dining-facilities, car-parks, more admin work etc - all that does produce additional cost. The product/service generated will be too expensive, the company will go bust.

BUT: You may have noticed that there is an election in the near future.

And you may also have noticed that ALL but the LINKE keep quiet - and some of their institutions advising them even called it nonsense already...

So it is just much ado about nothing.

Would be slightly different if we decided to cut down jobs AND pay...

TheWonderer
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#23
20:55 February 12, 2013 by raandy
TheWonderer.. are you a reincarnation of Wood Artist you know WA.???
Report abuse »
#24
19:48 February 14, 2013 by GoBike
I watched the local council fix a drain the other week they parked the truck and waited an hour, Got out fixed the drain one hour got back in the truck drove off an other hour later, probably went back to the depot waited another hour after on top of the hour before leaving 20% productivity. They could work a 10 hour week and save petrol keeping warm in the truck.
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