German union calls for four-day week

The head of Germany’s largest union, IG Metall, wants a four-day week to be part of the negotiations for next year’s pay round.

Earlier this year, the union agreed to extend its existing agreement in Germany’s metalworking industry, covering 3.8 million workers to the end of the year.

Since then, demands have grown for a new approach to working time.

The current agreement already provides for opportunities for workers to exchange some of the pay increase they would otherwise receive for more time-off. And the COVID-19 pandemic means that, in many companies covered by the agreement, workers are still either not working or on reduced hours.

IG Metall head Jörg Hofmann, said that the union expected production would increase very gradually and would only reach pre-COVID levels in 2022 or 2023 at the earliest.

Given the impact of increased automation, he said a general reduction in working time offered a solution. The issue, he argued, would be whether, as the employers want, this would also result in an equivalent reduction in pay. “That’s where we will really disagree”, he added