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All-metal boss Wolf
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
In the event of a gas shortage, the President of the Gesamtmetall Employers' Association, Stefan Wolf, relies on the willingness of employees to accommodate them.
He believes that there are many employees who are trying to save the company electricity and thus costs and to secure their jobs by working from home, said Wolf.
"I expect that too."
How dramatic the situation will actually be will only be known in the fall, when it becomes clear "whether Putin will turn off the gas completely," said Wolf, who is also CEO of the automotive supplier ElringKlinger.
He fears that the Russian President "will do it and it will hit us hard."
Then you have to pull out all the stops.
The companies have already done everything that goes to savings.
Opposition comes from the unions.
"Mr. Wolf would certainly prefer to see his production workers in his factories," said IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann.
He also has the greatest doubts that it is really more energy-efficient if a large number of employees work at home and use electricity and heat energy there.
"And it's about saving energy in a crisis and not about saving for the company." In addition, switching off and reheating larger buildings consumes more energy than heating them through.
"More than doubts are appropriate."
Due to concerns about possible energy bottlenecks, savings targets came into force at the beginning of the month, which are intended to reduce consumption over the next six months.
For workplaces in the private sector, however, the ordinance does not stipulate that room temperatures in offices, for example, have to be reduced.
The workplace ordinance currently specifies a minimum calorific value of 19 to 20 degrees, depending on the severity of the activity.
In view of the crisis, one should "think about changing the workplace ordinance again and we can go down to 18 degrees," said Wolf.
People had to rethink, demanded the employer boss.
"We have to think about how we can actually maintain the prosperity that we have." So far, it has always been about permanently increasing prosperity.
"We will have less available and will have to scale back our claims."
sbo/dpa
