The FDP no longer wants the eight-hour day
Eight hours a day - this has been the norm for German employees for over a century. The FDP finds this outdated and is calling for more flexibility. Instead, they want to focus on the total working hours within a week.
The FDP in the Bundestag is pushing hard for an end to the eight-hour workday for German employees in its current form. Already with the Growth Package, the coalition granted employees and employers future flexibility in designing working hours, said FDP parliamentary group vice-chairman Lukas Köhler. "This is an important first step in the right direction, which could potentially lead to a complete shift from hourly to weekly working hours."
Today, an employee's daily working hours cannot exceed eight hours. They can be extended to ten hours, but they cannot exceed ten hours per week on average or eight hours per day more than six calendar months or 24 weeks in a year. Additionally, by collective bargaining agreement, working hours can be extended beyond ten hours per week.
Köhler argues: "To make the economic transition a success, we need to increase productivity and relieve people in their daily work. The rigid eight-hour workday is an outdated dogma. It no longer does justice to the modern lifestyle and working world of many people." Therefore, we are now creating an entrance into the flexibility of working hours, which employers and employees can agree on within the framework of collective bargaining agreements.
Overtime: Should be paid
The coalition leaders want to ensure that overtime is compensated through their budget negotiations. Supplements for overtime work that exceeds the contractually agreed full-time work should be tax- and contribution-free. According to tariff regulations, a weekly working time of at least 34 hours should be considered full-time employment. Forty hours should be the case for non-tariff regulated or agreed working hours.
Part-time employees who work overtime should receive a new tax incentive. Critics complain that many employees, according to surveys, actually want to work less, not more. Most overtime is not even paid today.
Eight-hour workday introduced in 1918
The eight-hour workday was introduced in Germany in 1918. After the First World War, revolutionary socialist forces were agitated. In private industry, there was fear of expropriation. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers returning from the war needed jobs: Shorter shifts for more people were the order of the day. So, on November 15, 1918, the Stinnes-Legien Agreement was signed. It is named after the negotiation leaders, the industrialist Hugo Stinnes and the labor leader Carl Legien.
They agreed on the eight-hour workday. The agreement marked the recognition of trade unions and private industry as tariff partners. "The political left's efforts to socialize production means were thwarted by the agreement," according to the Federal Center for Political Education.
The FDP's proposal to shift focus from hourly to weekly working hours aims to increase productivity and accommodate the modern lifestyle. Despite the option for ten-hour workdays, the FDP believes that the eight-hour workday is outdated and hinders flexibility.
To promote flexibility in working hours, the FDP advocates for collective bargaining agreements to enable employers and employees to agree on more flexible schedules. Critics argue, however, that many employees prefer to work less and view overtime as undercompensated.
