Following extensive talks with trade union IG Metall, car manufacturer Volkswagen has announced their commitment to harmonise working hours at their facilities right across the country. East German employees currently continue to work 38 hours a week for the same pay as their colleagues in the West, who only work 35 hours a week. Equalising working time has been a specific demand from the East at every collective bargaining negotiation in the metal industry for 30 years. At Volkswagen, it has been announced that the three-hour reduction in the working week will be spread over the period from 2022 to 2027, and that significant productivity gains will be required to neutralise the negative financial effect.
Read on: in German.
For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.