4-day working week in Germany?
Unions, works councils and more and more politicians are increasingly calling for the introduction of a 4-day working week for employees in Germany and are putting pressure on employers' associations and companies. However, most employees are reluctant to accept a loss of pay as a result. At first glance, this idea seems presumptuous, but a second look and a glance at other countries reveal a varied picture. In times of a shortage of highly qualified employees, companies are increasingly looking at various models for a four-day week.
The German Minister of Labor, Hubertus Heil, has made positive noises about the four-day week in an interview on securing skilled labor. A recent survey by the Hans Böckler Foundation also shows that 81% of full-time employees would welcome such a reform. There is also agreement - at least on the part of employees - that the reduction in working hours should only take place with unchanged pay. Only 8% of respondents would also reduce their working hours if this meant a corresponding reduction in pay. It was striking to observe that within this representative survey, only 2% of employees have already spread their full-time work over four days, whereas the implementation of such an idea is significantly advanced in the international environment.
Belgium and Iceland as pioneers
The four-day week in Belgium is generally in force. However, the special feature here is that employees can divide their weekly working time over four or five days, so that the total working time is not reduced as a result. Spain and Great Britain have similar models. In Iceland, the effect of reduced working hours with no change in salary was studied for the first time.
Legal parameters
The implementation of a 4-day week requires - in the absence of statutory regulations - an agreement to supplement the main performance obligations in the employment relationship. Companies can implement the 4-day week by means of individual supplementary agreements, which require the agreement of the respective employee. Companies bound by collective bargaining agreements are required to amend the normative part of the collective bargaining agreement accordingly in agreement with the union concluding the agreement. Since the level of collective bargaining coverage among employees in Germany has been declining for years, companies should also ensure that their employment contracts contain transparent reference clauses to the collective agreements to be amended. In addition, the works council may have a mandatory right of co-determination - particularly in the absence of a collective agreement - if the distribution of working hours over the individual days of the week is a specific issue.
For companies, a detailed examination of their currently effective (collective) contractual regulations is indispensable to subsequently introduce a 4-day week in their company in a legally secure manner in the ways outlined above.
A realistic alternative for companies?
The 4-day week offers companies the opportunity to permanently increase their attractiveness as an employer by being able to advertise themselves in the competition for highly qualified employees with a balanced work-life balance and to appear as an innovative company that uses the - after the Corona pandemic - sustainably changed forms of working as a design option. Likewise, greater flexibility in terms of working time models increases the likelihood of retaining employees in the long term, for example by agreeing a "limited" 4-day week with employees for certain phases of their lives. It remains to be seen whether a four-day week is economically feasible for a company at constant pay, since the increase in productivity with reduced working hours - postulated and sometimes referred to in studies - is by no means incontrovertible for all sectors and activities. Nevertheless, the four-day week can be an instrument for making the main performance obligations in the employment relationship more attractive, in that companies offer a reduction in working hours for the same pay instead of a pay increase.
According to the Federal Minister of Labor, Hubertus Heil, there are currently no plans to introduce a national law obliging companies to introduce a 4-day week in Germany. In any case, such a law would involve a considerable encroachment on private and collective bargaining autonomy. Consequently, it should continue to be left to companies, employees and the collective bargaining parties to decide whether and how they want to regulate working hours - within the framework of existing law - and therefore also whether the introduction of a 4-day week makes sense. For example, collective bargaining parties for an automotive group already agreed on a regular weekly working time of 28.8 hours as an annual average with effect from January 1, 1994 - a regulation that is no longer in force today.
Unsurprisingly, there is currently no silver bullet for companies. If a company decides to introduce a 4-day week, it not only requires a carefully coordinated regulation with regard to the main performance obligations in the employment relationship, but the general principle of equal treatment under labor law should always be taken into account throughout the company.
