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Janine Wissler in the Karl-Liebknecht House in Berlin: »The intensification of work continues to increase«
Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker
The public holidays in 2022 are not quite as bad as last year, but Christmas Day and New Year's Day, for example, fall on Sundays - and employees are therefore losing days off.
In view of the already high workload of many employees, Left party leader Janine Wissler calls for compensation for such days.
"The compression of work continues to increase," Wissler told the news portal "t-online".
»We now have a very large number of people who suffer from chronic overwork, burnout and depression.
That's why we think it's necessary and right to make up for such holidays.«
Less free than in other countries
In 2022, as in 2021, employees in Germany would have significantly fewer days off than employees in other countries.
"Other countries such as Great Britain, Belgium or Luxembourg are much further along than Germany and compensate for such days," Wissler continued.
The demand is not new – it became particularly loud last year when an unusually large number of public holidays fell on a weekend: including May 1st, German Unity Day on October 3rd and the Christmas holidays.
That is why politicians from various parties spoke out in favor of catch-up days in February 2021.
At the time, there was talk of days off as a “corona bonus”.
The first parliamentary secretary of the left-wing faction in the Bundestag, Jan Korte, told the Düsseldorf »Rheinische Post« shortly before May 1 last year - which fell on a weekend: »Every lost holiday means more stress and less urgently needed recovery from the Stresses from work and the pandemic.«
The left-wing faction in the Bundestag had already made several advances for corresponding compensation regulations before the pandemic.
In 2018, she pointed out in an application that there are compensation regulations for public holidays that fall on a Sunday in more than 85 countries.
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