Dispute over working hours: Entrepreneur Stihl: 35-hour week no longer up-to-date
Nikolas Stihl regards the 35-hour week as a luxury of bygone days. How his demand could influence the collective bargaining talks in the fall.
Entrepreneur Nikolas Stihl is calling for rapid talks between the parties involved in the collective bargaining over the extension of working hours without a wage offset in the metal and electrical industries in Germany. The supervisory board chairman of the forestry and gardening equipment manufacturer Stihl said in Waiblingen to the German Press Agency: "In good times, Germany could afford the 35-hour week.
Currently, we can't do that anymore. And the social partners should be aware of their responsibility and talk about the issue." He is now looking particularly at IG Metall, because they ultimately have to make the concessions. "But if we're already on the way to 500,000 lost industrial jobs, then we should really do everything to stop the bleeding."
Stihl said further that an extension of working hours without a wage offset would relatively quickly reduce labor costs.
In the midst of the economic crisis, the Mercedes management had reignited an old fundamental debate. Chief supervisor Martin Brudermüller suggested in an interview with the "Handelsblatt" a return to the 40-hour week - for the same salary. In the German automotive industry, the 35-hour week is standard for companies bound by collective agreements - also at Mercedes-Benz. It is not legally binding. IG Metall had called for nationwide protests at Mercedes against the board's move.
The collective bargaining round in the metal and electrical industries will start in the fall. "The 35-hour week was agreed upon with severe birth pains. And if you want to turn the whole thing around, the pain of loss will be very great." That is already clear. "That's why I don't think you'll see a simple collective bargaining round here."
Stihl is counting on pragmatic solutions to the issue. "The closer the representatives of IG Metall are to the working population, the more they understand the issues." He has concerns about the central office in Frankfurt. "The positions seem to be very entrenched there and strongly influenced by ideological convictions."
Translated by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report; automated translation may contain errors. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
