future of work
Employer boss complains about warning strikes without “measure and middle”
By Marko Schlichting
03/14/2023 04:19 am
On the day that the department store chain Galeria announces that it will close 52 of its branches, Louis Klamroth wants to talk to his guests about the “new power of employees” at “Hart aber fair”. Steffen Kampeter is clearly going too far, with the current warning strikes the employer boss misses the “rules of the game” and calls for legal regulation.
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil from the SPD has called on the employer and works council of the insolvent department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof to set up a transfer company. In the ARD program “Hart aber fair” on Monday evening, Heil pointed out the difficult situation, especially for the company’s older employees, who could now lose their jobs. “Now is the time for the social and company partners to ensure that people don’t fall into disuse. There is the instrument of the transfer company for this, which enables us to support people with a professional reorientation,” said Heil in the ARD . He would have liked to see layoffs prevented, Heil continued. “But if that’s not the case, that’s the right tool.” At the same time, Heil criticized the fact that in the case of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, employees again had to pay for the wrong decisions made by the company management in recent years.
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof announced on Monday that it would close 52 branches across Germany. The company announced that this was necessary in order to make the restructuring possible in the current insolvency proceedings. Almost 5,000 employees could lose their jobs.
The Karstadt announcement made the topic of the “Hard but fair” show even more topical on Monday evening. Changes in the labor market were discussed – and there are quite a few of them at the moment. Not only does Germany have full employment, there is also a shortage of skilled workers. Trade unions use this to demand significant wage increases in collective bargaining. However, they also have every reason to do so: Above all, the currently very high inflation, especially for the goods that you have to buy every day.
Employers want a new right to strike
Steffen Kampeter can understand the desires. “Good pay is extremely important, but only one of several factors that motivate people to work in a company,” says the general manager of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations on “Hart aber fair”. He laments what he believes to be excessive social security contributions, which are responsible for the fact that less and less “cash comes across on the paw”.
In view of the current frequent warning strikes, he also calls for a revision of the right to strike. So he can’t get anything from the traffic strike announced for March 27th. The railway union EVG and the service union Verdi then want to paralyze traffic in Germany for half a day. Kampeter wrongly speaks of a “general strike” and demands “that strikes be linked to arbitration negotiations: if there is no agreement, strike measures will then take place.” In the past, warning strikes were one to two-hour work stoppages in individual companies. With the current strikes, “the rules of the game are missing, there has been a complete loss of balance,” Kampeter complains. It’s not about restricting the right to strike, Kampeter claims, although that’s exactly what he’s demanding. “For me, it’s about the reliability for the employees to come to work on March 27. A warning strike should give a warning, but not paralyze an entire country.” The government must regulate this by law, according to Kampeter.
Minister of Labor Heil immediately rejected the boss’s demand. It is absolutely correct that politicians stay out of the labor dispute. That still applies.
Thelen wants new working time models
Another demand from employees, alongside higher salaries, is a better work-life balance. One option made easier by digitization is making working hours more flexible. Countries like Denmark or Belgium are leading the way. There is the possibility of a four-day week in certain areas. In Belgium, for example, the daily working time increases to almost ten hours. In Germany, the first companies have introduced the four-day week.
For the startup investor Frank Thelen, known from the VOX show “Die Höhle der Löwen”, this step does not go far enough. He thinks it’s okay when people want to work less and demands: “I think we need an unconditional basic income.” But it is also important for him to support people who would like to have a six or seven-day week. “We have to present the picture that we have people who want to work less, but also those who would like to do a lot more,” says Thelen.
Other problems are currently relevant for Minister Heil: Many people suffered from the intensification and acceleration of work. Many employees would be thrown off track as a result. In order to prevent this, new concepts must be developed. For Heil, “very flexible working time models in the CV” are part of it. “And one of these concepts is that at some point it’s time to call it a day.”