Bavaria wants to allow working hours of more than ten hours - criticism from unions 

Created: 11/30/2022, 5:00 p.m

The Bavarian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs wants to increase the maximum working time allowed on individual days.

She has received applause from business and criticism from trade unions.

Munich – The Bavarian Labor Minister Ulrike Scharf (CSU) wants to increase the maximum working hours per day.

At the conference of labor and social affairs ministers in Saarland, Bavaria will advocate making the Working Hours Act more flexible, she announced on Wednesday.

"A first important step is to allow working times of more than ten hours for individual working days of the week on a voluntary basis and in compliance with employee protection." The

had previously reported on this.

With the advance, Scharf wants to combat the shortage of skilled workers.

"We need more flexibility in order to be able to combine family and work - that also increases the employment rate." For this, the working time laws would have to be adapted to people's living environments.

Meanwhile, a new key issues paper by the federal government is to present further means of combating the shortage of skilled workers.

Bavaria's Labor Minister: Ulrike Scharf would like to increase the maximum working hours.

But it hails criticism from trade unions and praise from business.

© Sven Hoppe / dpa

Extended maximum working hours: criticism from trade unions

While there was applause from the economy, trade unions criticized the plan: "The proposals only lead to even more pressure to perform, to even more rat race, but not a single new skilled worker," said the chairman of the DGB Bavaria, Bernhard Stiedl.

The workers wanted more flexibility, but no experiments with the working hours law, he emphasized.

"Excessively long working hours and insufficient rest periods are a health risk." In order to improve women's employment opportunities, high-quality care options are needed and "the "family state of Bavaria" still has a lot of room for improvement".

The district head of IG Metall in Bavaria, Johann Horn, was also critical: "An extension of the maximum daily working time would open the floodgates to the exploitation of employees," he said.

"The consequence would be work without end and without borders."

Hotel and Restaurant Association welcomes plans

The hotel and restaurant association Dehoga Bavaria, on the other hand, welcomed the plans.

"Not only companies need more flexibility, the employees also demand more leeway in the organization of their working hours," said regional manager Thomas Geppert.

“Hospitality is not assembly line work.

You have to work when the work has to be done.” This applies, for example, to wedding celebrations where the guests want to celebrate longer or in the beer garden when the sun is shining.

In view of the shortage of workers, the intention is not to let fewer employees work more, but to use them more flexibly.

From this Wednesday onwards, the labor and social affairs ministers of the federal states will be meeting in Perl in Saarland.

For years there have been repeated calls from companies, but also from parties such as the FDP, to relax the Working Hours Act.

So far, a maximum of ten hours of working time per day is allowed.