Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) intends to link changes to the Working Time Act, specifically allowing a transition from daily to weekly working hours, to existing collective agreements. According to a draft bill reported by Politico, the core of the proposal allows parties to collective agreements, and under certain circumstances, business partners, to agree on a weekly rather than a daily working limit. The justification for this change explains that companies would be able to shift from a maximum daily working time to a maximum weekly working time, provided their collective agreements permit it.
This move represents an attempt to implement the flexibility on working hours-from a daily to a weekly maximum-that was agreed upon by the SPD and the Union in the coalition contract. However, this flexibility faced opposition from trade unions, who launched a campaign to preserve the traditional eight-hour workday. Previous attempts at a “social partner dialogue,” facilitated by the coalition between unions and employers, had yielded no results.
The draft bill also imposes the condition that health risks to employees must be safeguarded through special regulations. Furthermore, Bas aims to tighten the requirements for recording working hours in accordance with judicial rulings from the European Court of Justice and the Federal Labour Court. The new law mandates that “the employer shall electronically record the beginning, end, and duration of the daily working time. on the day of the work performance.” However, trust-based working time models are intended to remain permissible.
Changes are also being made to rules regarding work on Sundays and public holidays. For bakeries, the permitted time is set to increase from the current three hours to “up to five hours for production and up to an additional three hours for delivering goods scheduled for sale that same day.” Additionally, the draft aims to allow employees at public libraries to work up to six hours on Sundays and public holidays.
