Employees work longer and more atypical hours

Services union ver.di is warning local authority employers that they will face strike action if they push ahead with plans to increase the working week. The union says it will defend jobs and working time in local authorities and maintain pressure on the regional government employers to sign up to the deal agreed with federal and local government at the beginning of last year. Local authorities in Baden-Württemburg, Lower Saxony and Hamburg have all announced their intention of increasing hours. The union's response is that strike action will begin in Baden-Württemburg from 6th February. s

There have already been four rounds of negotiations between ver.di and the e.on energy company but the employers won't budge from their demand for a longer working week. They want to see a two-hour increase in working time from 36 to 38 hours a week. All union attempts at finding alternatives have been rejected by the company. The union is resisting the attempt to increase hours and meanwhile has a number of its own demands including extending e.on agreements to cover subsidiary companies, job security and taking on trainees. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->http://energie-bergbau.ver-und

Regional government employees in Baden-Württemberg took strike action on 5 December in defence of the 38.5 hour week. The region has been getting new starters - employees taken on since 2004 - to work 41 hours a week. Their holiday pay has also been cut and Christmas bonus reduced. An estimated 20,000 workers took part in the action. [Read more at > SWR->http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/bw/-/id=1622/nid=1622/did=847004/1rybzsz/index.html] Meanwhile workers at hospitals and university clinics in Hamburg and the North-Rhine Wesfalia region are gearing up for protests and possible strikes over their