Strike for shorter working hours at the railway – where thousands of workers are missing. The head of the train drivers’ union GDL, Claus Weselsky. Picture Alliance
Whether railway workers, metal workers or public sector workers: many unions are fighting for shorter working hours. The SPD, the Left and many Greens are also demanding that people should work shorter hours.
There is already a shortage of 1.7 million workers in Germany. The consequences can be felt everywhere in everyday life. And due to demographic change, the gap is expected to widen to five million.
But: With shorter working hours, their supporters actually want to alleviate the staff shortage by making jobs more attractive. Can this work? Here are the arguments and facts about Germany’s great personnel dilemma.
The train drivers’ union has started the longest dispute in its history. The GdL wants to paralyze freight and passenger transport in Germany for six days. GdL boss Claus Weselsky wants to implement shorter working hours. Train drivers should only work 35 instead of 38.5 hours. The railway rejects a blanket reduction in working hours. She is already missing thousands of train drivers. The tariff dispute at the railway is an example of the fight for the four-day week here – and against the lack of staff there.
The contrast could hardly be greater. On the one hand, there is a shortage of over a million workers in Germany. On the other hand, many unions are currently fighting for shorter working hours. Politicians are also calling for a four-day week. And in surveys, many people want to work shorter hours and retire earlier. How is that supposed to work?
A small selection of recent reports on staff shortages: Berlin is permanently restricting bus traffic – because hundreds of bus drivers are missing. The expansion of wind and solar energy is progressing more slowly – because thousands of skilled workers are missing. Restaurants are closing and shops are opening for shorter periods of time – because they can’t find staff. Classes are canceled in schools because teachers are missing. And anyone who travels a lot by train knows this announcement: “Unfortunately the train is canceled due to a lack of staff”.
Nevertheless, the railway union is striking for a reduction in working hours. Nevertheless, IG Metall is calling for shorter working hours and the introduction of the four-day week. Nevertheless, the SPD and the Left are also calling for shorter working hours. The SPD has even decided on a 25-hour week with full wage and staff compensation. And Chancellor Olaf Scholz is against longer working lives.
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The staff shortage is just beginning. Employers in Germany are currently unable to fill 1.7 million positions. Despite the recession. How is that supposed to work in an upswing? If it can even exist. The lack of workers has already become one of the most important brakes on growth in Germany. The foreseeable decline in the volume of work limits the growth potential, writes the Council of Experts.
The economists warn: “With the retirement of the baby boomers, an acute phase of demographic aging is currently beginning.” Labor market researchers have long since calculated the consequences: the staff shortage in Germany is growing – within just one generation – to around five million.
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How do demands for shorter working hours fit into this? It’s worth taking a look at the unions’ arguments.
Fewer people are working to combat the staff shortage
The industrial dispute at the railway: In addition to a double-digit salary increase, the GdL is calling for working hours to be reduced from 38.5 to 35 hours, i.e. by around ten percent, with full wage compensation. The shorter working hours should then be easier to spread over four days a week. This is intended to make shift work, which is usual for train drivers, more attractive – and thus help against the staff shortage.
The railway considers this to be unrealistic. It already lacks 3,700 train drivers and thousands of other train workers. In the event of a reduction in working hours, the train would have to make noise Invoice from the German Economic Institute (IW) Hire 10,000 employees. Where should they come from? The railway has now offered to give train drivers the choice of either working an hour less or getting more money. As a prerequisite, however, there must be enough train drivers.
Collective bargaining round in the steel industry:
In addition to 8.5 percent more money, IG Metall is demanding a reduction in working hours from the current 35 hours with full wage compensation. The aim of IG Metall is “to introduce the four-day week, which will then become possible in many areas,” said district manager Knut Giesler. This is the only way to secure jobs – and attract new skilled workers.
Collective bargaining round of Berlin transport companies:
The Verdi union is demanding 33 days of paid vacation plus 500 euros in vacation pay per year for all employees, an extended turning time of ten minutes on all lines, an increase in rest periods to twelve hours, up to six additional days of vacation for night work and a reduction in unpaid breaks in driving services .
A small example:
What unions are demanding on a large scale has long been implemented by some companies on a small scale: they lure staff with shorter working hours. For example, Sascha Halweg in his restaurant “Blümchen” in Freiburg. “The collective agreement stipulates a weekly working time of 39 hours. “We work 31 hours a week for the same money,” he said loudly tagesschau.de. The alternative is to introduce rest days due to a lack of staff or to close completely. His simple calculation: “Which can I afford more: losing guests or paying more?”
But Halwag also makes it clear what this means for the employees: “I can get more out of my people.” This doesn’t work in other industries, such as train drivers. “Their performance will not be improved by a wage increase or shorter working hours.”
Four-day week: who does the work? Picture Alliance
The examples represent attempts to alleviate the staff shortage with shorter working hours – and their problems.
Vicious circle: lack of staff, pressure, working hours
The lack of personnel has already made work more difficult in many industries and professions. This is described for health, nursing and education professions. One way out would be to hire more staff. But that doesn’t exist. The workload therefore leads to demands to reduce working hours. But that only makes the staffing gap even bigger. To close it, more people would have to be hired. But they don’t exist. The stress at work increases.
Four-day week: What helps individuals exacerbates the problem
For individual companies, the calculation can still work out. There is a shortage of workers at the railway, “we have to make the shift system more attractive,” demands GdL boss Weselsky. And that’s right: shorter working hours with higher salaries make the job as a train driver more attractive. Bus drivers were also easier to find for more money and less work. This also applies to the waiters in the “Blümchen” restaurant. Overall, however, this only shifts the problem. Because of shorter working hours, there are no more workers and skilled workers. They are just poached from other professions where they are then missing.
Another example: In In the public sector, the Verdi union is currently on strike for a city-state allowance to combat the staff shortage in metropolises. If the allowances attract more staff from the surrounding area to the cities, this would exacerbate the staff shortage in the surrounding area.
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Even from a macroeconomic perspective, there are still two arguments in favor of allowing the mechanisms to work. First: More attractive working conditions can encourage more people who previously did not work or only worked part-time to work at all or more. There is still scope here in Germany, especially among women and older people. However, this leeway is not great because labor force participation in Germany is already high compared to other countries.
Second, increased competition for staff leads to workers moving to more productive companies and industries that can afford it. But: Less productive companies then have to give up and public services become more expensive.
So many buses, so few bus drivers. Berlin is cutting the timetable due to a lack of staff. Picture Alliance
Consequences: working time, costs and inflation
Shorter working hours with wage compensation generally mean higher costs. Blümchen operator Halwag is right: very few companies can compensate for the shorter working hours by getting more out of their people. Higher costs mean higher prices. The most recent wave of inflation was driven first by a lack of materials and then by rising energy prices. Rising personnel costs have now become the biggest risk for a comeback or a continuation of inflation.
Four-day week: working hours and productivity
Studies on the connection between working hours and productivity are causing a stir. Their thesis is usually: If working hours are reduced, employees and their companies still achieve the same, and sometimes even better, results. The employees are also happier. We have also reported on such studies several times.
What is peculiar to them is that they mostly relate to office work. They cannot be transferred to many jobs in production or services. Shorter, especially more flexible working hours can increase productivity in some professions, industries and companies with better organization. This can only be transferred to the economy as a whole to a limited extent. The experience that productivity growth in Germany is declining despite the trend towards shorter working hours also speaks against this.
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Conclusion: Strikes for shorter working hours are harbingers of coming conflicts in an aging society
The desire is understandable: many people want to work less and for shorter periods of time. The four-day week is popular. The shortage of personnel even means that the chances of employees and their unions increasing for themselves to achieve shorter working hours in the labor market. Companies will offer shorter working hours to attract staff. For Germany as a whole, however, this will increase the shortage of workers.
In order to secure prosperity, productivity would have to increase dramatically. That’s not in sight. Or the work volume must remain approximately stable. To do this, either more people have to work. Above all, this would require more immigration into the labor market. Or those in employment don’t have to work less, but more. This can be during the week, throughout the year or throughout your entire life.
By international comparison, people in Germany work comparatively little. The Weekly working hours are relatively short. The vacation is comparatively long. The Roman Herzog Institute estimates it as follows based on data from the EU: In Germany, the lifespan spent working is the shortest in the EU, except for Luxembourg.
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