IG Metall has been fighting for the 35-hour week in the east for decades.
A comprehensive solution with the employers never came about.
But a new agreement now enables alignment.
Berlin / Frankfurt - For those employed in the metal and electrical industry in the east, their working hours are getting closer to the west.
The collective bargaining partners have signed an opening clause for the area-wide collective agreements in Berlin-Brandenburg and Saxony, as IG Metall and employers announced on Monday.
This means that corresponding agreements could be concluded in the individual companies in order to gradually reduce working hours.
So far, the collective agreements in the east provide for a three-hour longer regular working time than the 35-hour week in the west.
Even with the most recent collective bargaining negotiations in the spring, despite numerous warning strike campaigns, it was not possible to change the standard working hours across the board.
Instead, both sides agreed to agree on a collective bargaining framework in June within which solutions can be found at the company level.
This now provides that the local works councils and employers in the individual companies can negotiate a gradual reduction in working hours from next year.
Partial compensation for a limited period should be possible for this: employees would then have to forego part of their Christmas or vacation pay for some time, for example.
"You forego part of the service for a while and from a certain point in time X the entitlement is 100 percent again," said Birgit Dietze, IG Metall district manager for Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony, Birgit Dietze on Monday.
At the end of the day, the trade union and employers' associations would also have to agree to the negotiation results in the companies.
The collective agreement that has now been found will last until the end of 2023.
A gradual introduction of the 35-hour week has already been implemented in some companies, including VW Sachsen, the automotive supplier SAS in Meerane, Saxony, and ZF in Brandenburg an der Havel, explained Dietze. They assume that in the future, corresponding company agreements could be made for around 80 percent of employees in Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony.
The employers' associations for Berlin, Brandenburg and Saxony described the agreement with IG Metall on Monday as a "breakthrough". “The companies are given the opportunity to agree on working time regulations tailored to their needs within the framework of the collective bargaining agreement,” said the negotiator of the Association of the Metal and Electrical Industry Berlin and Brandenburg (VME), Stefan Moschko. "At the same time, this makes an important contribution to strengthening the area-wide collective bargaining agreement." Dpa