German steel unions make progress on 35-hour week

Steelworkers in East Germany are to move to a 35-hour week, but as yet there is no agreement on cuts in hours for other metalworkers in East Germany.

The agreement for the around 9,000 employees in the steel industry in the former East Germany was signed on 7 June and comes after a series of one-day strikes.

It provides for a staged move from the current 38-hour week, beginning with a reduction to 37 hours in April 2005, followed by further cuts to 36 hours in April 2007 and finally to 35 hours in April 2009.

However, the IG Metall union has agreed that if economic conditions worsen considerably the two sides will meet six months before each reduction to decide whether it should be postponed for a year.

Steel workers in the former West Germany have had a 35-hour week since 1995 and for IG Metall's president Klaus Zwickel, the agreement represents "an important success on the way to equal pay and working conditions in the whole of Germany".

However, as Workplace Report went to press no agreement had been reached for the 310,000 workers in the rest of the metalworking industry in the former East Germany, who have also been taking strike action to back their demands.

They too are on a 38-hour week and are looking to match the working hours of their West German colleagues in the metalworking industry, who have had a 35-hour week since 1995.