The introduction of a four-day week is out of the question for the automaker Daimler. “A four-day week with wage compensation, as demanded by IG Metall, is neither expedient nor economically feasible in view of the situation in the automotive industry,” said HR director Wilfried Porth (61) on Wednesday.
It is a matter of securing the costs, the transformation of the company and the demand in the long term and “nevertheless successfully using the opportunities that increasing sales figures will offer us again in the future,” emphasized the manager.
IG Metall had discussed a four-day week to save jobs in the metal and electrical industry. “The four-day week would be the answer to structural change in industries like that car industry. This means that industrial jobs can be kept instead of being written off, “said the first chairman of the union, Jörg Hofmann (64). He spoke of”a certain wage compensation for the employeesso that employees can afford it “.
Hofmann sees an interest in companies in reducing working hours instead of dismissing them. “That secures skilled workers and saves costs for a social plan, for example.” Companies such as Bosch, ZF and Daimler had only reached agreements this summer to reduce working hours – at Daimler, however, only in certain areas and in the Usually around two hours a week – mind you, without wage compensation.
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (47, SPD) is open to IG Metall’s proposal: “Reduced working hours with partial wage compensation can be a suitable measure,” Heil told the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe”.
The minister knows that most German citizens are on his side. Three out of five Germans (61 percent) are open to a four-day week to protect jobs in the Corona crisis. 21 percent of those questioned fully agree with the model proposed by IG Metall, and another 40 percent tend to support it, as a representative survey by the Yougov polling institute showed.
The collective bargaining partners for the metal and electrical industry agreed in March that they would not raise wages for around four million employees in the industry this year. With this emergency contract, the collective wage agreement, which was actually terminated on March 31, was extended to the end of 2020 without any further increases. This means that the four-day week could come up with the next round of collective bargaining at the turn of the year.