“Fossil Dogma”
FDP wants to abolish the eight-hour day
May 19, 2024, 12:00 a.m
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While the SPD calls for a four-day week, the FDP proposes deregulation of the eight-hour day. Employees should be allowed to negotiate with their companies whether they want to work through breaks or work longer on some days than others, demands parliamentary group vice-president Köhler.
The FDP is pushing for the abolition of the eight-hour day to be included in the traffic light coalition’s planned economic turnaround package. “We should abolish the maximum daily working hours and only set a maximum weekly working time,” said the deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Lukas Köhler to the Editorial Network Germany (RND). “To do this, we would have to modernize the Working Hours Act accordingly.”
The eight-hour day is “a fossilized dogma from a time when there was massive concern about exploitation. But times have changed. The working time law comes from a world in which there was no home office. Hardly anyone respects this -Hour dogma still prevails in his working day.” Such openings are initially conceivable for sectors with strong collective agreements, such as the chemical industry, the postal and parcel market and the logistics industry. This is also conceivable in the IT industry and other professional fields with home office options. The changes would accelerate the economic turnaround. The traffic light parties had agreed on experimental areas for new working time rules in their coalition agreement, but had not yet implemented this.
Abolish rigid break regulations
Köhler also spoke out in favor of relaxing the legally required breaks and rest times. “We should no longer impose rigid regulations,” he said. Many people were already working through their lunch break so they could go home earlier. Others sat down in front of the computer again later in the evening so that they could go to the playground with their children in the afternoon. “Of course they don’t have eleven more hours until they’re back in the office the next day. Many people are actually already breaking the working time law because it makes their lives more relaxed. This flexibility should no longer be illegal,” said Köhler.
Köhler also told the RND that one could also think about relaxing the legal maximum limit for weekly working hours, which is currently 48 hours. A tax exemption for overtime is also conceivable. Making concrete guidelines is not the task of the state, but of the social partners. Regarding the SPD’s demand for a four-day week, the FDP politician said: “A four-day week would certainly be possible in many companies with the same weekly working hours if the daily eight-hour barrier falls.” However, if weekly working hours were to be reduced, this would be the wrong approach in times of a shortage of skilled workers.